The 2024 MotoGP world championship may have been played at Sepang. Francesco Bagnaia crashed in the Malaysian GP sprint and is now 29 points behind Jorge Martin, winner of this race.
Starting in pole position, Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) handed over control to Jorge Martin (2nd on the grid) even before the first corner. The double title holder seemed able to fight for victory with Jorge Martin (Ducati), but he made a mistake in the third of 10 laps after lightly biting the curb.
Martin mastered his subject after the Italian's fall, winning almost a second ahead (0''913) over Marc Marquez (2nd) and 2''010 over Enea Bastianini (3rd). The 26-year-old Spaniard, who is aiming for a first MotoGP title, picked up his 10th success of the season (the 7th in a sprint).
Jorge Martin took full advantage of Bagnaia's retirement, the 8th in total this season for the Italian (sprints and Sunday GPs combined). He will be crowned on Sunday at Sepang if he scores 9 points more than his rival, who will have to finish 2nd in the event of a victory for the Spaniard to maintain the suspense.
ats/btro
