MotoGP: The #73 wins in Malaysia, Acosta impresses to earn P2 as a late bike problem for the #63 hands Mir a Sunday rostrum.
After clinching second in the MotoGP World Championship on Saturday, Alex Marquez (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) backed it up with a commanding Malaysian Grand Prix victory on Sunday. A flawless ride from the #73 saw the Spaniard beat the impressive Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) by 2.6s, while a late issue for Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) handed Joan Mir and Honda HRC Castrol a fantastic P3 at Sepang.
Bagnaia earns holeshot, Marquez aggressive early
Just as he did in the Sprint, Bagnaia nailed the start and earned the holeshot, as Acosta fired his way into an early P2. But not for long. Alex Marquez attacked his compatriot at Turn 4, and a lap later, the #73 demoted Bagnaia to P2 with a brilliant move up the inside of the Italian. For the first time this weekend, the #63 wasn’t leading.
Bagnaia vs Acosta begins
On Lap 3, it was Turn 4 again. This time, Acosta was underneath Bagnaia, but the latter bit straight back at Turn 5 to keep the KTM behind him. Acosta then gave it another go at Turn 9, but once more, it wasn’t a move that stuck. This phenomenal duel between Bagnaia and Acosta allowed Marquez to stretch his early lead out to 0.8s, with Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) a further 0.8s back in P4 – the Frenchman having Mir close for company.
A few laps went by and the situation at the front remained the same. Marquez’s lead was hovering around the second mark, with Acosta still locked onto the rear tyre of Bagnaia. It was 1.9s back to the Quartararo vs Mir fight that was rumbling on nicely, with Franco Morbidelli (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) 1.1s adrift of the two MotoGP World Champions. Fermin Aldeguer (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP), meanwhile, was 1.5s behind Morbidelli and was struggling to get going in the Grand Prix at this stage.
On Lap 10 of 20, Mir made his move on Quartararo. What did the HRC star have in his pocket now that a bit of free air was ahead of him? The gap to the podium fight was 2.7s as the Grand Prix entered the second half, and now, tyre life was going to be crucial.
The beginning of Lap 12 saw Australian GP winner Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) crash at Turn 1, which was just after Miguel Oliveira (Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP) also slipped out of contention, while at the front, Marquez was half a second quicker than Pecco and Acosta.
Acosta makes his move, Bagnaia suffers bike problem
Then, Acosta pounced. Turn 11 was the place and when the move was made, the gap between Marquez and Acosta was 1.8s, then two seconds. It was a move that stuck for Acosta, with Bagnaia potentially regretting his front medium compound tyre choice now.
Lap 14 saw Marquez land a 2:00.546, a whole second faster than Bagnaia and over half a second quicker than second place Acosta. Mir, in P4, was also in the 2:00s, meaning the #36’s podium chances weren’t done yet – and the same could be said for Morbidelli in P5.
However, on the next two laps, Bagnaia managed to find a bit of pace to limit the damage to his advantage over Mir. With four laps to go, the gap between the Ducati and HRC riders sat at 1.9s, with Acosta 2.5s away from Marquez. It looked like Acosta needed Marquez to make a mistake in the closing stages if he wanted to have a realistic chance of clinching his first MotoGP win.
While a win looked like it was coming for Marquez, the other side of the Gresini garage then witnessed Aldeguer crash out at the final corner, as Bagnaia then encountered an issue on his Ducati. Pecco felt something wasn’t right coming into Turn 1 and immediately started looking down to the rear of his machine. What had gone wrong? It wasn’t clear to us what it was, but whatever the issue, it meant Mir was now in P3, and Pecco was scoring zero points. A disappointing end to a great weekend for Pecco, but a gift for Mir and Honda after their Sprint DNF on Saturday.
And so, the last lap began. Marquez was 2.8s clear of Acosta, who in turn had a very comfortable gap back to Mir. 1.4s split the latter to fourth place Morbidelli, so minus any mistakes, P3 was Mir’s.
After clinching second place overall on Saturday, Marquez completed a fantastic weekend at the office to win for the first time outside of Spain. Kudos to Acosta, that’s another sublime effort from the KTM rider to stick it on the box at Sepang, 13 seconds ahead of the next best KTM, as Mir earns his second Sunday podium of the season with a P3. A great start and end to the flyaway stretch for the 2020 World Champion and HRC.
Your Malaysian GP points scorers
Morbidelli had some very strong late race pace to finish in P4, with Quartararo completing the top five after he was forced to sit up at Turn 15 when Morbidelli came barging through. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) earned P6, a couple of seconds ahead of Enea Bastianini (Red Bull KTM Tech3), who came from P19 on the grid to collect a P7 – a great ride from ‘The Beast’.
Luca Marini (Honda HRC Castrol), Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and Ai Ogura (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) rounded out the top 10, the trio finishing ahead of 11th place Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing). It was a low-key round for Bezzecchi and Aprilia, but Pecco’s unfortunate DNF means they move back into P3 overall.
The final points on offer went to Johann Zarco (CASTROL Honda LCR), Alex Rins (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), Jack Miller (Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP), and Somkiat Chantra (IDEMITSU Honda LCR).
Next up: Portimao
With second in the championship now wrapped up by Marquez, all attention turns to the P3 fight. Bezzecchi and Pecco are split by five points, with Acosta now only 31 points behind Bezzecchi, meaning he’s not out of the equation yet either. See you there.
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