Jorge Martín took another step towards the MotoGP title by winning the Sepang sprint race, extending his championship lead to 29 points over Pecco Bagnaia. A Pecco Bagnaia absent at the finish after a highly costly fall, which occurred while following his rival.
Since the start of the weekend, we knew that the threat could come from the sky for the good performance of this Grand Prix, which was already tense enough. When the first drops of rain fell on the Sepang circuit five minutes before the start of the sprint race, the tension level rose another notch. Just a few drops, but enough for the race management to authorize the change of motorcycle while the riders were doing their warm-up lap on slick tires, an authorization which no one, however, took advantage of given the very low intensity of the downpour.
After memorable qualifying, contested at a record pace and with rare intensity by Bagnaia and Martín, the two candidates for the title took their place at the front of the grid. When the lights went out, they set off perfectly, heading side by side towards the first corner, which the Spaniard finally entered first. To the detriment of his brother, it was Marc Márquez who rose to third place, managing to take Bagnaia's wheel while the rest of the pack immediately fell a step behind.
In this first lap, an error by Bagnaia at the exit of turn 9 offered a handful of additional hundredths to Martín, but this trio remained in this order, and with almost identical times of 1'57″8 in the second round, notably superior to the rest of the field.
But from the third round, there was a twist! Pecco Bagnaia, the one who had been at the top of the standings since the start of the weekend, may have seen the title slip away when his front wheel slipped out from under him, brushing a white line. In turn 9, which had already caused him a heat two laps earlier, the Italian stopped for a long time to take stock of what he had just lost by falling.
Of the seven remaining rounds, posterity will remember that Jorge Martín performed his score to perfection. While his team warned him to stay focused, the Spaniard proved that this season was indeed that of his maturity as a driver and, for the seventh time this year, he won the gold medal, and above all the 12 points which allow him this evening to touch the title.
The order of arrival in the leading quartet was decided very quickly and then never changed. Marc Márquez validates second place, a result with which he will certainly be satisfied knowing his few atoms hooked with this circuit. Conversely, Enea Bastianini, big winner of the Grand Prix last year, will judge his third place to be very bland, almost two seconds behind the winner.
Behind Álex Márquez, well qualified and quickly isolated during these ten laps of the race, it was Fabio Quartararo who put on the show. The Frenchman was able to take advantage of an immediately well-started weekend, then a good position on the grid, to get the top 5, at the cost of several perfectly executed overtakes. He finished ahead of Franco Morbidelli on his Ducati, then a trio of KTMs who fought hard. It was Brad Binder who had the advantage, ahead of Jack Miller then Pedro Acosta, holder of the last point.
We will also note the abandonment of Johann Zarco, stopped by a technical problem on the eighth lap. As for Andrea Iannone, for his first sprint race in MotoGP, he finished in 19th position.
The main race of this Malaysian GP will be contested on Sunday at the same time, i.e. 8 a.m. French time, and with the same starting grid.
