2024 Malaysian MotoGP: Bagnaia forces title showdown with win over Martin
Bagnaia prevails in thrilling early battle to keep title hopes alive
Francesco Bagnaia dominated the 2024 Malaysian Grand Prix after a thrilling early battle with Jorge Martin to keep his MotoGP title hopes alive and set up a final round showdown.
With 29 points splitting Martin from Bagnaia coming into the 20-lap grand prix, the championship could have been won by the former if he got his tally up to 38.
But Bagnaia held firm in a thrilling early battle with Martin to dominate the race by 3.141s to score his 10th grand prix win of the season.
Martin was second, with his championship lead coming down to 24 points and a final round showdown - set to be staged at Barcelona, but not yet confirmed - being set up.
Enea Bastianini completed the podium for another Ducati 1-2-3, while Marc Marquez crashed out of third on lap seven but remounted to finish 12th.
The race was red flagged on the opening lap after a scary incident involving KTM duo Brad Binder and Jack Miller, as well as Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo at Turn 2.
Binder made contact with a bike ahead of him and then clattered into Quartararo, who had Miller on his extreme inside.
Miller had to receive trackside medical assistance, but suffered no serious injuries. Binder did not take the restart due to a physical issue.
The grand prix was restarted over 19 laps, with Bagnaia nailing his launch from pole to hold off Martin, while Marc Marquez moved into third.
Martin made a brave attempt at taking the lead from Bagnaia at Turn 6, but ran a little wide and let the factory Ducati rider back through.
The championship leader made a move stick into Turn 14, and held onto first despite running wide at the last corner just seconds later.
But the Pramac rider was demoted by Bagnaia on the brakes into Turn 1 on lap two, with the latter holding firm after another Martin attack at Turn 4.
Martin retook the lead at Turn 14 and headed Bagnaia coming out of the last corner - though he pair touched elbows as they rocketed across the start/finish line.
Running wide at Turn 1 on lap three, Martin let Bagnaia back into the lead, while the factory Ducati rider resisted another raid at Turn 4 - only for Martin to dive up the inside of Turn 5.
Bagnaia carved up the inside of Martin into the last corner at the end of third tour to take the lead again, and this proved to be the decisive move.
At the end of lap five, Bagnaia’s lead was up to eight tenths and continued to rise, while a crash for Marc Marquez at Turn 5 on lap seven gave Martin a comfortable gap in second.
The pair differed on front tyre strategy, with Bagnaia on the soft and Martin on the medium. On lap 15, this appeared to be coming into play as Martin knocked Bagnaia’s lead from two seconds to 1.5s.
But an error at Turn 9 on lap 16 lost Martin eight tenths to Bagnaia and that ended his charge.
Bagnaia took the chequered flag 3.141s from Martin, with Bastianini 7.3s adrift in a lonely third.
Alex Marquez was fourth on his Gresini-run GP23, while Pedro Acosta completed the top five on his Tech3 GASGAS.
Quartararo took the restart after his Turn 2 incident with the KTMs and scored the first top six for a Japanese bike in a grand prix in 2024.
Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales was seventh, with Alex Rins (Yamaha), Marco Bezzecchi (VR46) and Augusto Fernandez (Tech3) rounding out the top 10.
Johann Zarco was the top Honda in 11th, while Marc Marquez rejoined after his crash to finish 12th and hold onto third in the standings.
Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) was 13th ahead of Franco Morbidelli, who remounted after a Turn 9 crash, and Honda’s Luca Marini.
Andrea Iannone was 17th in his first grand prix since 2019 for VR46, while there were retirements for Joan Mir (Honda) and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR).
