MotoGP Malaysia Results, Grand Prix - Careful consideration

There are three rounds of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship remaining, and the first of those three takes place in Malaysia this weekend with Francesco Bagnaia leading Jorge Martin coming into the Sepang race by 13 points. MotoGP Malaysia results will be available on this page throughout the the weekend.

Overview

Grand Prix - Marquez makes Malaysia double as Martin cuts points deficit

Sprint - Bagnaia falters as Marquez takes second Sprint win of 2023

Qualifying - Crucial pole for Bagnaia as Martin crashes

Grand Prix

It has become a novelty to enter a Grand Prix where Jorge Martin is not the favourite to take victory, but Alex Marquez’ domination of the Sprint in Sepang on Saturday meant he was the one to beat over the full 20 laps. However, he was defeated by Enea Bastianini, who won his first race in the red of the factory Ducati team.

The Malaysian Grand Prix diverged from the Sprint immediately. On Saturday, Francesco Bagnaia had made the holeshot from pole position, but this time it was Enea Bastianini from third on the grid who took the advantage from Alex Marquez.

The leading pair were ahead of Bagnaia, while Jorge Martin was fifth behind Marco Bezzecchi. The #89 was quickly able to dispense of Bezzecchi, and leapt straight onto the back of Bagnaia.

By lap five, Bagnaia was 1.5 seconds behind Marquez ahead of him, and it was only now that the Italian’s pace appeared to begin to improve.

But it was now that the tyre game really began. The gaps between all of the front four edged up towards one second, as their pace seemed to equalise somewhat around the mid-1:59 mark. On Saturday, both front and rear tyres were of concern, with temperatures and pressures at the front being matched by degradation management on the rear tyre, and those were repeated here in the full-length 20-lap GP.

With 10 laps to go, Martin was dropping out of contention, and that was the pattern of the final 10 laps. The front four telescoped out in the second half of the race, which proved to be one of the most unentertaining of the season - Bagnaia’s five-second demolition in Austria perhaps the only race to rival this Sepang clash on that front.

Bastianini had not won a race since Aragon 2022, and had been rumoured to be on his way out of the factory Ducati team at the end of the season due to his lack of results (brought about in no small part by his injury problems this season). But he ended that drought here in Malaysia, winning by 1.5 seconds in the end over Alex Marquez.

Marquez had his best chance of winning a Grand Prix this weekend since he challenged Alex Rins in Aragon three years ago, but his second place as follow-up to his Sprint victory the day before confirmed a strong return to podium contention for the #73 after his broken ribs in Indian Grand Prix qualifying.

Francesco Bagnaia completed the podium, almost seven seconds clear of Jorge Martin in the end. He had the best pace in the final three laps, but by that time he was almost two seconds behind Marquez - a gap too large to close in the limited time remaining. 

Martin entered Sepang 13 points behind Bagnaia, and leaves it 14 points behind. In one way, he was much worse than Bagnaia on Sunday, but on the other hand he had his worst race since Austria, finishing fourth in the end, on the weekend where Bagnaia could only manage third place, so all is certainly not lost for the #89’s quest to be the 2023 MotoGP World Champion.

While there were 6.9 seconds between Martin and Bagnaia, there were 4.474 seconds behind the Pramac Ducati rider. It stretched back to Fabio Quartararo, who defeated Marco Bezzecchi in a battle for fifth place. 

Bezzecchi’s inability to beat Quartararo was somewhat reminiscent of the 2022 race, where a Bezzecchi pass on Quartararo would have sealed the championship for Bagnaia. This time, the stakes were not as high in this battle, but Bezzecchi’s sixth place means he is now mathematically out of title contention.

Franco Morbidelli was outside the top 10 for much of the race, having qualified down in 15th. Had he not been dealing with the attention of Marc Marquez in Q1, the #21 Yamaha might have been a problem for Bezzecchi, too. In the end, he was seventh, ahead of Jack Miller (8th, top KTM), Fabio Di Giannantonio (9th), and Luca Marini (10th).

Full MotoGP results from the Malaysian Grand Prix are below.

2023 MotoGP Malaysia Results | Grand Prix

Sprint

The MotoGP Sprint was a tough race to call in Malaysia, with six Ducati riders in the first six positions on the grid all with a chance to finish on the podium. In the end, the victory went the way of Jorge Martin, who used his superior pace to bolt away at the start, before managing the gap he created.

It was Francesco Bagnaia starting from pole position for the first time since Barcelona, and he made the holeshot ahead of Enea Bastianini and Alex Marquez, while Jorge Martin dropped to third.

Marquez’ pace has been strong all weekend and he knew it - he dispatched Bastianini at turn four on the first lap and began pressuring Bagnaia, who led over the line for the first time.

Bastianini had slipped to fifth by the end of the first lap. Martin slipped up the inside of him at the penultimate turn, and that compromised his momentum onto the back straight, where Jack Miller was able to take advantage.

Marquez made his move on Bagnaia at the final corner on lap two, but that only cost him position to Martin in the end. It was a position Marquez was able to reclaim at turn four, but the battle cost the whole group behind Bagnaia - which stretched back to Luca Marini in ninth - half-a-second to the leader.

By lap six, Marquez was back in position to pass Bagnaia, which he did - successfully this time - at turn nine. The sixth lap got worse for Bagnaia at turn 14, when Martin passed him.

Marquez made his lead count on lap seven, and opened up a one-second lead over Martin, who in turn was putting himself out of reach of Bagnaia.

Bagnaia himself was having trouble containing his teammate, Bastianini, who had cleared the KTMs of Brad Binder and Jack Miller while Bagnaia was slipping backwards.

Marquez went unchallenged to the line, taking his first dry weather MotoGP race win, and his second in total after the Silverstone Sprint, this time with a margin of 1.589 seconds over Jorge Martin, who took a useful second place ahead of Bagnaia, who was undoubtedly helped to third by a willing teammate in Bastianini.

Bastianini himself was fortunate to hold onto fourth place from Brad Binder, who was much faster than Bagnaia by the end, and therefore than Bastianini, too. The South African, though, was overriding the KTM to be in that position, and ran wide a couple of times on his way to the back wheel of Bastianini - he had to settle for sixth in the end, one place ahead of his teammate, Jack Miller.

Marco Bezzecchi was somewhat subdued on his way to eighth, as was his VR46 Ducati teammate Luca Marini who was ninth. The teammates were split by Johann Zarco in eighth place, while Maverick Vinales rounded out the top 10 as the top Aprilia. 

Franco Morbidelli was the top Yamaha and top Japanese bike in 11th place.

Full MotoGP results from the Sprint in Malaysia are below.

2023 MotoGP Malaysia Results | Sprint

Qualifying

With the time ticking down to the final round of the series, the pressure on the title contenders is increasing in MotoGP, especially in qualifying sessions. On this occasion, in Malaysia, it was Francesco Bagnaia who came out on top, taking his first pole position since Barcelona.

Q1 was dominated by two things. Firstly, by a game of 'can I force you to tow me round' engaged by Marc Marquez against Franco Morbidelli. In the end, neither of them made it to Q2, because Morbidelli used too much focus trying to keep the #93 Honda out of his slipstream, and because Marquez crashed out trying to pass Augusto Fernandez on his last lap having finally given up on trying to get a tow from Morbidelli. It meant Marquez qualified 20th and Morbidelli, who has shown strong pace this weekend, will start down in 15th.

Q1 went better for Ducati's two uncertainties. Fabio Di Giannantonio is certainly out of Bologna in three weeks, but it is not certain whether he is in at HRC. He made it through to Q2 with an equal time to that with which his current Gresini Racing teammate, Alex Marquez, topped Practice on Friday: a 1:57.823. 

Since Thailand, rumours have begun again that Enea Bastianini could be replaced by Jorge Martin in the factory Ducati team next season, and Ducati Corse Sporting Director Paolo Ciabatti pretty much confirmed that Martin is a possibility for the Ducati Lenovo Team in 2024, presumably dependent on whether he takes the #1 plate from Francesco Bagnaia in the next three weeks, in an interview broadcast on the MotoGP world feed. In any case, Bastianini is riding well this weekend, and he passed through to Q2.

The trend in recent races has been that Q2 is dominated by Jorge Martin, and that was the case again in Malaysia, at least for the first run. The pressure is heavy on the shoulders of the #89 now, with the world title well within reach of himself and his exceptional speed, speed which allowed him to set a new lap record on the second lap of his first run, putting him almost 0.3 seconds clear of the pack.

However, the second run did not go to plan for Martin, who crashed out of his final lap at turn four. Around 90 seconds later, his title rival Francesco Bagnaia took his first pole position since the Catalan Grand Prix in September. A good sign for Bagnaia, who has lacked speed compared to Martin in recent races.

Martin's crash was not too costly, as he still qualified second. His start prowess in the last six races or so means there is still every chance for him to take an early advantage in the Sprint.

Completing the front row is Enea Bastianini, who is in the top three in qualifying for the first time in 2023. Good timing from the #23 for the reasons mentioned above, and it is incidental that Bastianini's return to form should come in Sepang, where last year he pushed Bagnaia in one of the most tense races of the 2022 title battle.

Alex Marquez qualified fourth and has pace to mix it in the podium battle. He will start alongside the VR46 Ducati duo of Luca Marini (5th) and Marco Bezzecchi (6th) on the second row, meaning the top six places on the grid are taken by machinery from Bologna.

The first non-Ducati on the grid is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the #33 KTM ridden by Brad Binder. Like his factory Yamaha teammate Morbidelli, Fabio Quartararo has strong pace this weekend, but fighting for the podium on an underpowered motorcycle will be difficult for the 2021 World Champion from eighth place. Maverick Vinales will start ninth on the grid as the top Aprilia.

Jack Miller rounded out the qualifying top 10, ahead of two more Ducatis. Fabio Di Giannantonio might have had speed for a front-three-rows start at least, but a crash in the final corner before he started his last flying lap meant he could not improve on the time from his first run, which was only good enough for 11th in the end. Johann Zarco never set a representative lap time - his 2:01.848 would have been the fastest lap of the race in 2010 with some margin, but today it made Zarco the slowest rider in qualifying.

Full MotoGP results from qualifying in Malaysia are below.

2023 MotoGP Malaysia Results | Qualifying