Francesco Bagnaia achieved his goal of victory in Malaysia, after his crash in yesterday’s sprint race. The Ducati rider, reigning world champion, triumphed in the long race, overtaking Jorge Martin, his rival and current leader of the standings. Enea Bastianini, Bagnaia’s teammate, also stepped onto the podium. With this result, the difference between Martin and Bagnaia is now 24 points in favor of the Spaniard, who is seeking his first world title; Martin would only need to win the sprint race to take the crown. The world championship will be decided in the last Grand Prix in two weeks, probably in Barcelona, ​​which replaces the difficult Valencia.

Bagnaia showed a true champion’s reaction, starting an intense duel with Martin, characterized by spectacular overtaking in the first laps. Afterwards, the Turin native imposed his pace and crossed the finish line alone. At the end of the race, Bagnaia commented: “We know that on Sunday we are stronger. Saturday is always difficult for me. We worked very well and we have to find ways to improve over the weekend. Winning ten races in a season is extraordinary. The race went as expected; I knew that if I had been in front I could have managed the situation better. It was a nice, clean fight.”

Martin acknowledged Bagnaia’s skill: “Thanks to him because he makes this challenge more and more difficult. I wanted to win but Pecco had a different approach. I tried to resist, but when he passed me I couldn’t get close again; I was afraid of falling. We are still very close in terms of points and we will play everything in the last race”.

The Sepang race had started with a critical moment due to an accident at turn 2 involving Quartararo, Binder and Miller. The Australian was in serious danger when he found himself with his head under the wheel of Quartararo’s Yamaha. A red flag was needed to allow assistance to the Australian, who fortunately did not suffer serious injuries and was able to leave the paddock on his own two feet.

After the restart, the race was shortened from 20 to 19 laps and Bagnaia immediately took the lead. The first laps were characterized by overtaking between him and Martin, but towards the halfway point the Turin rider took a decisive advantage to take his tenth win of the season and his 28th in MotoGP. Bastianini finished in third place, taking advantage of Marc Marquez’s crash, who still found himself twelfth at the end of the race after getting back on the bike.