2022 Malaysian MotoGP, Sepang – Race ResultsPosRiderNatTeamTime/Diff1Francesco BagnaiaITADucati Lenovo (GP22)40m 14.332s2Enea BastianiniITAGresini Ducati (GP21)+0.270s3Fabio QuartararoFRAMonster Yamaha (YZR-M1)+2.773s4Marco BezzecchiITAMooney VR46 Ducati (GP21)*+5.446s5Alex RinsSPAXGSSuzuki Ecstar -RR)+11.923s6Jack MillerAUSDucati Lenovo (GP22)+13.472s7Marc MarquezSPARepsol Honda (RC213V)+14.304s8Brad BinderRSARed Bull KTM (RC16)+16.805s9Johann ZarcoMarc MárquezSPARepsol Honda (RC213V)+14.304s8Brad BinderSPARRSARed Bull KTM (RC16)+16.805s9Johann Zarco Honda (RC213V) (FRAPA5) Yamaha (YZR-M1)+23.235s12Cal CrutchlowGBRWithU Yamaha RNF (YZR-M1)+24.641s13Miguel OliveiraPORRed Bull KTM (RC16)+24.918s14Pol EspargaroSPARepsol Honda (RC213V)+24.641s13Miguel OliveiraPORed Bull KTM (RC16) +24.918s14Pol EspargaroSPARepsol Honda (RC213V)+Techpriricks. -GP)+30.427s17Alex MarquezSPALCR Honda (RC213V)+33.322s18Remy GardnerAUSKTM Tech3 (RC16)*+33.691s19Joan MirSPASuzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR)+41.838s Darryn Yamaha-RNFAWithZRU Yamaha-RMNFAWith)* DNF Fabio Di GiannantonioITAGresini Ducati (GP21) *DNF Jorge MartinSPAPramac Ducati (GP22)DNF Tetsuta NagashimaJPNLCR Honda (RC213V)DNF Luca MariniITAMooney VR46 Ducati (GP22)DNF* Rookie
Francesco Bagnaia wins the Malaysian MotoGP at Sepang to lay his hands on the 2022 world title.
The Ducati rider will take a 23-point lead over Fabio Quartararo into the final in Valencia, following third place for the reigning champion.
With a strong start and brave braking, Bagnaia shot from ninth to second at Turn 1, becoming the race leader when Jorge Martin crashed on lap 7 of 20.
But future team-mate Enea Bastianini was crawling all over Bagnaia’s red machine and took the lead midway through the stage.
Bagnaia fought back and just held off the Beast, while Quartararo made a late charge to close in on the race leaders.
Bastianini, like Aleix Espargaro (tenth), has officially been eliminated from the battle for the world championship.
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Starting only ninth (Bagnaia), tenth (Espargaro) and twelfth (Quartararo) after a dramatic Saturday in which all three crashed and Quartararo fractured a finger, Bagnaia got off to a dream start: cutting the brakes off his rivals to be second behind. Martin on turn 1!
Quartararo also took an early seventh place, which soon became fifth ahead of Joan Mir and teammate Franco Morbidelli, while Espargaro stayed at the bottom of the top ten, where he would finish.
Up front, Martin set the pace confidently, with Bastianini impatient behind Bagnaia and Quartararo eager to overtake Marc Márquez.
This happened on lap 5 of 20, after Marquez had repeatedly run outside, but the Frenchman now 2.5 seconds behind Bastianini.
While the Monster Yamaha rider was soon able to get away from Márquez, who had the Suzukis of Joan Mir and Alex Rins on his tail, Quartararo struggled to catch Bastianini.
Martin made his big mistake on lap 7 of 20, leaving a 1.2 second lead and a possible first win of the season on the edge.
This meant that Bagnaia and Bastianini were battling it out for the win, with Quartararo moving up to third but being caught by another Ducati rider, Marco Bezzecchi, the fastest rider on track.
If Bagnaia held off Bastianini for the win, with Bezzecchi overtaking Quartararo for third, the title fight would be over.
But a blip in Ducati’s Sepang title celebration came later in the form of a pass by Bastianini, who snatched the lead from Bagnaia under the brakes at Turn 4 with 10 laps to go.
Is it time for team orders?
Fierce discussions took place between Gigi Dall’Igna, Paolo Ciabatti and Davide Tardozzi, presumably on orders from the team, but Bagnaia took matters into his own hands as he re-passed Bastianini in the final corner to retake the lead 7 laps to go.
No obvious instructions were given and Bastianini kept the pressure on Bagnaia, while Quartararo, having broken off Bezzecchi’s challenge, began to close in on the leaders in the closing laps.
Quartararo was within 1.7 seconds, but ultimately the reigning champion’s Yamaha did not have the pace to reach the leaders and his only hope was a wrap between the Italians.
Bastianini, who overtook Bagnaia last time out in Aragon, was just 0.131s back as the final lap began, the Gresini driver repeating his Misano moment by nearly ticking off the back of Bagnaia at Turn 9.
But Bagnaia held firm and took his seventh win of the season by 0.270s.
Quartararo qualified to within 2.5 seconds of victory, with Bezzecchi bouncing back to finish on his tracks, while Alex Rins and Jack Miller overtook Marc Marquez to leave the Repsol Honda rider seventh.
Rins’ teammate Joan Mir crashed out of the battle.
Morbidelli, after serving a double long-lap penalty, was in further trouble when he overtook Aleix Espargaro on the final lap and dropped a position.
A technical problem with the front puncture device saw Luca Marini fail to finish a MotoGP race for the first time in his premier class career.
After a wet warm-up, the race took place in dry conditions, in front of 88,000 fans, with all drivers on medium front and soft rear tyres.
A minute’s applause was held on the grid in memory of Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz.
Alex Marquez had a long lap penalty to serve for colliding with Jack Miller at Phillip Island last weekend.
Morbidelli was given his double long lap for upsetting Bagnaia and Marc Márquez in FP3: “This is the third time this season that you have been seen riding slowly on the line and upsetting the other riders,” said a statement from the MotoGP Stewards of the FIM.
Pol Espargaro received a three-place grid penalty for “unsafely rejoining the track and creating a dangerous situation for another driver” (Johann Zarco) in FP1.
The Valencia final will take place from November 4 to 6.