Fresh from yesterday’s bloody ‘zero’ in the Sprint Race, Francesco Bagnaia wins the Malaysian Grand Prix, clinging tooth and nail to his last hopes of a World Championship comeback. Pecco does what he needed, but his rival Jorge Martin significantly limits the damage by crossing the finish line second and maintaining a 24 point lead in the standings, when there are now only one more Sprint and another GP left at the end of the season (almost certainly yes will race on November 17th in Barcelona after Valencia had to cancel its GP due to the floods).
Third place goes to Enea Bastianini after Marc Marquez’s fall. At the start the usual duel between Bagnaia and Martin immediately broke out, with the Italian responding forcefully to the Spanish rival’s first attack attempt and maintaining the lead, but after a contact between Alex Marquez and Binder unleashed a fearful carambola which it involves the South African himself, Quartararo and Miller.
The former Ducati rider is the one who gets the worst of it and remains dangerously on the ground for a few minutes, but after the red flag and help on the track he gets back on his feet, making everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
The second start from the grid smiles again at Pecco, but ‘Martinator’ shows that he is not afraid by engaging in a heart-pounding duel between braking, overtaking and counter-overtaking which goes on for a few laps before Bagnaia takes off and maintains the advantage until the end without the possibility of reply.