Pecco Bagnaia wins the Malaysian GP, but it is not enough to establish himself as world champion. On the podium Enea Bastianini and Fabio Quartararo.
The Malaysian GP it is the penultimate round of the 2022 MotoGP championship, a crucial point for the fate of this World Championship. Pecco Bagnaia, leader of the standings, starts from ninth position, but patches up the mistakes of Saturday with a wonderful start that sling him to second place, behind the poleman Jorge Martin and in front of Enea Bastianini. Good also the departure of Fabio Quartararo who sticks to the leading group, even with a microfracture on the middle finger.
Jorge Martin flies away increasing his advantage lap after lap, pushes on the tires, squeezes his Ducati GP22, intent on proving that he deserved the rise in the Ducati factory team. Instead, on the seventh lap he falls into the gravel and confirms Borgo Panigale’s doubts … Enea Bastianini is no exception, he leaves third place behind Pecco Bagnaia and proves to know how to be a team man too, second after the fall of the Pramac team from Madrid, in the viewfinder that third final place in the drivers’ standings that would allow him to cash in some precious economic bonuses.
The MotoGP title is awarded in Valencia
There is no shortage of moments of tension in the Ducati garage, Pecco Bagnaia contending for the victory until the last lap, with Pecco Bagnaia that goes to take the lead of the group in the second part of the race. At that point Bastianini locks his second place, behind them Fabio Quartararo, the world championship speech is postponed to Valencia on 6 November. Now Pecco boasts a 23-point lead over Yamaha’s French rival.
Good performance by Marco Bezzecchi who finished 4th. Too bad we did not overtake on Fabio Quartararo, otherwise Bagnaia would have already been world champion. Alex Rins, Jack Miller, Marc Marquez, Brad Binder, Johann Zarco and Franco Morbidelli close the top 10. Very good performance of the Italian on the Yamaha, who had to serve a double Long Lap Penalty.
This time Marc Marquez fails to achieve the podium, accusing some problems with Honda on the Sepang circuit. On the flying lap he was able to make the difference and cover the technical delays of the RC213V, but on the race pace he could not do anything against the Ducatis.
#TheDecider awaits in Valencia !!! 🏁@PeccoBagnaia vs @ FabioQ20 ⚔️#MalaysianGP 🇲🇾 pic.twitter.com/zEgQT19NLY
– MotoGP ™ 🏁 (@MotoGP) October 23, 2022
