Bagnaia forces World Cup showdown in Spain

The title fight in MotoGP will be decided in the last race of the season. Jorge Martin has his World Championship match point against Francesco Bagnaia at the Malaysian Grand Prix – and now has to hope for Barcelona.

03 November 2024

From: dpa

The decision in the MotoGP World Championship has been postponed. World Championship leader Jorge Martin from Spain finished second at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang on Sunday behind his title rival and Ducati brand colleague Francesco Bagnaia, who took his tenth win of the season.

Martin takes a lead of 24 points over the Italian into the finale in Barcelona. Third place went to Italian Enea Bastianini, also on Ducati, and fifth place went to Spaniard Pedro Acosta on KTM.

Bagnaia and Martin competed in a top-class manner from the first lap, overtaking one another one by one. After a few laps, however, the positions were taken and Martin was satisfied with second place.

The starting position was that Martin would have become world champion early after his sprint victory on Saturday if he had won on Sunday and Bagnaia had finished outside the top two. The sprint and main races are scheduled for the season finale in two weeks, and the race will now take place in Barcelona instead of Valencia following the flood disaster.

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"Thanks to Pecco, he makes it even more difficult. We were both aggressive. I wanted to build up pressure again and almost fell. Now the last challenge awaits and we will do our best," said Martin. Bagnaia was happy about the tenth win of the season, but also explained: "We had problems on Saturday, we have to improve there."

The race required a restart because KTM riders Brad Binder (RSA), Jack Miller (AUS) and Fabio Quartararo (FRA/Yamaha) were involved in a nasty crash on the first lap.

A bad crash occurred in the first lap. © APA/afp / MOHD RASFAN

Miller seemed to have been hit the hardest, but he escaped without serious injuries and walked unharmed through the pit lane with his family. Neither he nor Binder, who complained of shoulder pain, were able to start the race again, but Quartararo tried and finished sixth.