Francesco Bagnaia overcame Jorge Martin’s early challenge to win the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday, making a light dent in Martin's championship lead as the Spaniard came home second.
The pair duelled in spectacular fashion after factory Ducati rider Bagnaia converted his pole to a first-corner lead at the restart. However, Martin ultimately had to settle for second place and 20 points aboard his Pramac Ducati.
The result means Bagnaia has cut the gap at the top of the points table to 24, giving him a chance of retaining his world championship crown at the finale - now set to take place in Barcelona - in two weeks.
Two starts were required to get the race going after an incident in the opening sequence of corners caused a red flag.
Bagnaia had taken the lead from Martin at the first corner when an accident developed behind them, involving the KTMs of Brad Binder and Jack Miller as well as the Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo.
Bagnaia still led when the red flags flew towards the end of the first lap, as Miller still received attention on the circuit.
There was some concern for Miller during the red flag delay, but the Australian was then seen walking away from the medical centre. Though he escaped major injury, he would not take part in the restarted race. Binder joined him on the sidelines for the rest of the day after reporting pain on his shoulder.
Quartararo did however take the restart despite walking with a pronounced limp following the incident.
The ‘second’ race was reduced to 19 laps and got off to a spectacular start as Martin repeatedly attempted to make a move on Bagnaia stick during the first four laps. Thanks to Martin’s scant regard for the idea of following Bagnaia home and banking 20 points, their gripping battle was the longest protracted spell of wheel-to-wheel racing between the championship protagonists this season.
Then Martin’s slight mistake towards the end of lap four allowed Bagnaia a little breathing space to ride normal lines. He responded with fastest lap on lap five, which finally broke Martin’s challenge for victory.
Bagnaia was able to control the rest of the race to win by just over three seconds from Martin, whose choice to go against the grain and run the medium front tyre did not appear to have a meaningful impact on the outcome.
Enea Bastianini finished a lonely and distant third on the second factory Ducati. The Italian initially ran behind Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and Franco Morbidelli (Pramac Ducati), but both fell on lap seven.
Alex Marquez, aboard the second Gresini Ducati, ran one spot behind Bastianini throughout the race. He briefly came under threat from Pedro Acosta, who made up several places from 13th on the grid, before the Tech3 KTM’s challenge faded in the final three laps.
Quartararo took an encouraging sixth place for Yamaha, with Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) and Alex Rins (Yamaha) completing the top eight.
Marco Bezzecchi won a tight battle for ninth place, the VR46 Ducati man holding off Tech3’s Augusto Fernandez by just over a tenth of a second at the flag.
Johann Zarco led the Hondas with his 11th place, while Marc Marquez recovered from his fall to finish 12th ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.
Morbidelli also remounted to score points, picking up two for his 14th place. Last of the scorers was Luca Marini on the factory Honda.
