MotoGP: Bagnaia wins in Malaysia to keep title hopes alive
The PETRONAS Grand Prix of Malaysia – 19th and penultimate round of the 2024 MotoGPTM World Championship – was won by Francesco Bagnaia, ahead of Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) and his Ducati Lenovo Team team-mate Enea Bastianini. The MICHELIN Power slick range overcame the stiflingly hot weather to contribute to the weekend's entertaining action. Read on for more about what happened at Sepang.
After qualifying on pole-position with a time of 1m56.337s (an improvement of 1.1s over the previous track record), Bagnaia was eliminated by a mistake during Saturday's sprint race. He consequently needed to finish the grand prix ahead of Martin to stay in the chase for a third world crown.
The Italian got off to a strong start – albeit with his title-rival sitting on his tail – before the race was halted due to a tangle on the first of the afternoon's 20 laps involving Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing's Jack Miller and Brad Binder. The race was restarted for 19 laps with Bagnaia and Martin on different front tires after the former opted for the soft and the Spaniard on the medium.
Bagnaia got away cleanly again, but with Martin right behind him once more, and the two riders nudged each other as they traded the lead several times during the first three laps. The two-time champion then started to pull out a gap thanks to a string of quick, consistent laps before going on to collect his tenth win of the campaign by a margin of 3.1 seconds.
Bastianini was third, more than 10 seconds adrift of the day's winner.
The MICHELIN Power Slick range overcame track temperatures in excess of 50°C at lights-out to deliver another strong performance after having helped Bagnaia to shave 1.1s off the previous track record for Sepang in qualifying. Martin also lapped in under 1m57s. All of the riders chose the medium rear for Sunday's grand prix, but a mix of soft and medium rears could be seen on the grid, with both options finishing on the podium in the hands of Bagnaia and Martin.
Thanks to his sprint-race victory, the Spaniard is 24 points clear of Bagnaia in the provisional championship standings, which means the title will be decided at the season's finale in Barcelona.
The last grand prix of the season was supposed to have been held in Valencia, but the venue has been changed due to the horrendous flooding that has affected the Spanish region. The replacement race's date will be announced shortly.