Francesco Bagnaia produced a commanding MotoGP race win in Sepang, taking the championship fight to the season finale.
After winning a sensational on-track battle in the opening laps with Jorge Martin, both riders retained and settled for first and second-place spots, and they were in a world of their own over the rest of the field.
The penultimate Grand Prix of the season commenced, and Martin produced a carbon copy start to Saturday’s Sprint but went wide into Turn 1.
Bagnaia produced a switchback move as the Italian reclaimed the lead before a Turn 3 incident caused an early red flag before the race arrived at the first sector.
Jack Miller, Fabio Quartararo and Brad Binder had a calamitous three-bike incident. A high side from one of the riders caused the abrupt end of the Australian’s race to end first as he fell off his bike and collided right into Quartararo’s Yamaha, which compromised Binder’s race as a result.
Miller was sent to the medics for further checkups, but no serious injuries were reported before the race re-started as the Australian walked back to the paddock.
Bagnaia kept hold of his lead on the second attempt, but the factory Ducati rider lost his lead at Turn 6 to Martin before performing another switchback move.
Martin turned the bike underneath Bagnaia before the back straight and snatched the lead, but proceeded to go wide at the final Turn.
However, the Pramac rider had a sensational drive out of the final corner to accelerate past the factory Ducati rider and re-claim the lead.
An incredible battle between the championship protagonists ensued on laps 2 and 3, with the lead switching in at practically every Turn. The long-awaited on-track battle arrived, and it duly delivered.
The two GP24 Ducati riders squabbled and battled hard at the notoriously tricky overtaking spots, providing some of the best racing seen all year. Martin built a 29-point lead from Saturday’s Sprint race win but had the mentality of giving it his absolute all to claim the lead.
Bagnaia successfully regained the lead over Martin, and the Spaniard in second decided to hold fire and preserve tyres. On lap 5, Bagnaia formulated a 0.7s advantage, but the gap stretched to one second by the end of lap 6.
Gresini’s Marc Marquez rose to third place after the restart and witnessed the sensational Bagnaia and Martin on-track battle. The Spaniard never looked over the limit, but a crash at Turn 15 on lap 7 put him out of podium contention.
Franco Morbidelli retired from fourth spot earlier on lap 7 at the problematic Turn 9, which has caught multiple riders out throughout the weekend.
Both riders rejoined in 16th and 17th place to try and salvage points on the board. However, Joan Mir’s crash a few laps prior ended any chance of the Spaniard securing multiple points from all the riders retiring up to that point.
The leaders out front formulated a seven-second advantage over the rest of the field in the closing laps and produced some of the year’s best racing in the early stages.
Bagnaia had a 2.1s lead with four laps to go, and Martin closed the gap to 1.6s, which appeared to worry the Turin master out front.
It proved to be Bagnaia lapping uncharacteristically slower, and Martin sensed a late win charge, but the Spaniard opted to solidify second position after having a wobble at Turn 9 himself.
Bagnaia achieved his tenth Grand Prix win of the season and won by just over 3s ahead of his Pramac rival, but now 24 points separate the pair going into the season finale.
Bastianini solidified third place after Marquez’s early crash, but the Gresini outfit had one Marquez finish in fourth place and it belonged to younger brother Alex.
Pedro Acosta secured fifth for GasGas after a difficult day for KTM due to its incident with both riders early on.
Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins delivered sixth and eighth, to the delight of the struggling Yamaha team, with Maverick Vinales separating the duo to bring his Aprilia bike home in seventh.
Marco Bezzecchi finished in ninth for the VR46 Ducati team, while GasGas rider Augusto Fernandez rounded off the top ten to deliver one of his best results in MotoGP.
Johann Zarco delivered Honda’s best result of 11th and fended off a late and rapid charge from Marquez who recovered to 12th after his crash early on.
Aleix Espargaro settled for 13th place in his second to last outing in MotoGP, as the second Pramac rider of Franco Morbidelli finishing in 14th.
Luca Marini secured the final point-scoring position in 15th. Still, the last three riders belonged to the Trackhouse duo of Raul Fernandez and Lorenzo Savadori, with VR46 rider stand in Andrea Iannone wedged between in 17th.
