Enea Bastianini put in an assured performance at the Sepang International Circuit to secure his first MotoGP win of 2023, while Francesco Bagnaia extended his points advantage over Jorge Martin.

Bastianini made another good start from third on the grid to challenge the leaders into Turn 1, his job made easier as Martin tried to dive through on pole-man Bagnaia on entry to the bend.  

The Spaniard ran both wide though, which allowed Bastianini and Saturday sprint winner Alex Marquez to slide through, with Bagnaia and Martin slotting into third and fifth respectively.

From then on Bastianini controlled proceedings in a commanding fashion out in front, the factory Ducati rider sustaining a strong pace while also preserving his Michelin rubber.

His lead flip-flopped between one to two seconds over Marquez throughout the encounter, Bastianini ultimately taking the chequered flag 1.5 seconds clear of the Gresini ace to secure his first victory of the season.

While unable to challenge Bastianini for the leadership, Marquez was at least able to hold off any attack from Bagnaia to complete a strong weekend in second.

Bagnaia’s run to third ensured his points lead extended out to 14 with two events remaining, the reigning premier class world champion leaving Malaysia a further point clear of Martin than he arrived as Martin could only manage fourth.

Martin meanwhile had to settle a decent way behind the podium battle after struggling for grip across the second half of the race. He tried to pass Bagnaia on a few occasions early on, but eventually began to fall away.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo enjoyed a much stronger Sunday than he had in Saturday’s sprint as he completed the top five, the Frenchman looking after the rubber on his M1 to recover several positions in the latter stages.

VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi claimed sixth ahead of the other Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli, the Italian passing KTM’s Jack Miller at the death to secure seventh.

This left the Aussie eighth ahead of the second Gresini entry of Fabio Di Gianantonio, while Luca Marini rounded off the top ten on the sister VR46 Ducati.

Maverick Vinales completed a tough weekend for Aprilia in 11^th ahead of Pramac’s Johann Zarco, while Marc Marquez was the best-placed Honda in a distant 13^th.

Alvaro Bautista continued to struggle for form on the extra factory Ducati entered this weekend, the reigning World Superbike champion coming home as the last man who failed to crash in 17^th, with only Takaaki Nakagami behind in 18^th after the LCR man went down at Turn 9 late on.

Brad Binder failed to mount a charge for the rostrum due to a bad start that left him down in tenth early on, before later crashing from ninth at Turn 11. Aprilia’s tricky Malaysian event was illustrated by Aleix Espargaro crashing out from 13^th just before mid-distance, while both RNF Aprilia’s also failed to make the chequered flag.

Joan Mir meanwhile also ended his day early, after the factory Honda pilot crashed out in the opening stanza of the contest.

Fermin Aldeguer cruised to a second straight Moto2 victory at the Sepang International Circuit in commanding fashion, while Pedro Acosta secured the rider’s title with two races to spare.

Aldeguer lost the lead to Yamaha Master Camp’s Manuel Gonzalez off the start, though managed to level him through Turn 1. Aldeguer made contact with the Spaniard exiting the bend though which sent him to the floor while the Speed Up man regained the lead.

From this point on Aldeguer checked out from the rest of the field, pulling around a second a lap on Acosta in the opening laps to craft a solid advantage.

Having escaped penalty for his part in the incident with Ramirez, Aldeguer remained untroubled for the remainder of the encounter as he expertly preserved his rubber to take the chequered flag 7.1 seconds clear of Acosta to grab a third win of the season.

It would be Acosta who secured the ultimate prize by finishing second though, as with Marc VDS’ Tony Arbolino suffering a tough outing en route to 10^th, Acosta’s runners-up result wrapped up the 2023 title with two races to spare as he extended his points gap over the Italian to an unassailable 79.

Acosta’s title came off the back of 14 rostrum results from the 18 races contested so far this season, including a total of seven victories to ensure he will step up to the GasGas MotoGP squad in 2024 as the reigning intermediate class champion.

The tussle for the final spot of the rostrum was more hotly contested, as American Racing’s Marcos Ramirez desperately tried to hang onto a maiden podium result ahead of a charging Ai Ogura in the closing laps.

Ramirez had held the spot right from the outset of the encounter, though had begun to run out of tire later on, allowing Ogura to close right in.

The Honda Team Asia racer – who took advantage of the craziness at Turn 1 on the first lap to move from 15^th on the grid to sixth exiting the bend – pressed Ramirez as he tried to find a way through on the very final lap.

Ramirez was determined to finally stand on the rostrum though and held firm to secure third ahead of Ogura, while GasGas’ Jake Dixon snatched away fifth from the other Speed Up of Alonso Lopez on the final lap.

Having already dropped outside the top five, Lopez then crashed out just a few corners from home. This allowed the other Honda Team Asia entry of Somkiat Chantra to claim sixth ahead of MarcVDS’ Sam Lowes.

Joe Roberts was eighth for Italtrans ahead of KTM Ajo’s Albert Arenas, as Arbolino took advantage of Lopez’s problems to salvage a top-ten result despite his earlier mishap.

Several front runners failed to make the finish, including Aron Canet who challenged within the top five in the early laps. He dropped to 14^th after serving a long-lap penalty for crashing under yellow flags in qualifying, but later crashed out while trying to recover positions.

His Pons team-mate Sergio Garcia also later went down while fighting within the top ten, while Fantic Racing’s Celestino Vietti fell victim to Turn 9 while running fourth.

Colin Veijer fended off team-mate Ayumu Sasaki to secure victory in the Malaysian Moto3 encounter at the Sepang International Circuit, while several title hopefuls crashed out.   

Veijer showed impressive performance throughout the 15-lap event as he continuously disputed the lead with series leader Jaume Masia, Sasaki as well as KTM Ajo’s Deniz Oncu.

The Husqvarna rider kept his powder dry and remained in the leading group of just six as the final third of the attritional race got underway, a group which was reduced to three with two laps remaining after Jose Antonio Rueda outbraked himself and took out Oncu at the final bend.

Veijer led the way at the start of the final tour ahead of Sasaki and Masia, though team-mate Sasaki tried to snatch away the lead at Turn 4. Veijer snapped back perfectly though and swept back around the outside of the Japanese pilot at Turn 5.

Sasaki regrouped and elected to follow Veijer around the rest of the lap for a final corner attack, all the time defending from Masia. Having got close enough for an attack, Sasaki once again was forced to settle for second as Veijer braked impossibly late to hold the line through the bend.

Achieving a good exit, he flew across the line to secure his maiden Moto3 race victory by just 0.066s ahead of Sasaki and Masia, whose series lead was eroded to 13 points with two rounds remaining.

The fight for the championship now looks to be a two-horse race as Oncu’s late incident – from which he rejoined en route to 12th at the chequered flag – means he is now 51 points off Masia with 50 left on the table. The chances of Daniel Holgado and David Alonso securing maiden successes were also reduced after they crashed early on.

Alonso was pushing to make up ground from 21^st on the grid after crashing in qualifying, only to go down again after high siding at Turn 4. Several riders piled into the side of his stricken bike, including Holgado, MT Helmets – Msi’s Diogo Moreira, Ricardo Rossi, and Thai rostrum finisher Taiyo Furusato.

Alonso and Holgado now sit a distant 41 markers off the series lead with two races to run, leaving them with a lot of work to do to get back into the title picture.

Meanwhile, Ivan Ortola survived the chaos to bring his MTA Angeluss machine home in fourth ahead of BOE’s David Munoz, with Adrian Fernandez completing the top six for Leopard Racing.

Xavier Artigas ended up seventh ahead of CFMoto team-mate Joel Kelso. At the same time, Filippo Fairoli and Ryusei Yamanaka moved into the top ten late on ahead of Matteo Bertelle, who was pushed out of the lead battle having to avoid the stricken Oncu at the final corner.

Alex Marquez put together an emphatic ride to secure victory in the Malaysian MotoGP Grand Prix sprint race, while Jorge Martin narrowed Francesco Bagnaia’s series lead further.

Marquez made a strong start from fourth on the grid to claim third as the field exited the opening corner as Martin fell to fourth, though he soon managed to wrangle away second from Enea Bastianini and ended the opening lap sat in the runners-up position.

With his Ducati looking more agile than Bagnaia’s, Marquez looked left and right for a way to the lead. He first tried at the final bend, though he ran wide and allowed Martin – who by this point had also moved clear on Bastianini – ahead of him.

Marquez soon redressed the balance and restarted his pursuit of the leadership, a quest that would bear fruit after the Gresini man dived through on Bagnaia at Turn 10 just past mid-distance.

An opportunistic Martin took the chance to swiftly demote Bagnaia to third just a couple bends later, though the Pramac man was powerless to do anything about Marquez up ahead as he began to escape.

Building a lead of over a second in just two laps, Marquez ultimately took the chequered flag 1.589s clear of Martin to secure his second sprint race success of the year at the Sepang International Circuit.

Bagnaia meanwhile held onto third just behind his title rival, though Bastianini clearly looked faster and likely played the team game as he held off the advances of a charging Brad Binder on the final lap.

Bagnaia’s lead over Martin has thus been reduced to 11 points ahead of Sunday’s full-length grand prix event.

Binder managed to pass Bastianini at the final bend on the last lap after he ran wide, though due to this the Italian got a much better exit and sling-shotted back past the KTM into fourth by the time the duo had crossed the line.  

Jack Miller looked quick in the early laps before eventually fading back to sixth ahead of VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi, while the points scorers were completed by the other Pramac entry of Johann Zarco and the sister VR46 Ducati of Luca Marini.

Maverick Vinales was the first to miss out on points, the Aprilia man completing the top ten just ahead of Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli.

Fabio Quartararo could manage only 16^th after a bad start dropped him towards the back of the pack, the Yamaha racer struggling to make ground behind GasGas duo Augusto Fernandez and Pol Espargaro.

The only two crashers in the race came in the shape of the Repsol Honda men. Marc Marquez went down at Turn 14 just a few laps into the contest, while Joan Mir fell victim to Turn 15 just a couple tours after.

Both re-mounted their RC213Vs and took the chequered flag in 21^st and 23^rd respectively, Marquez getting the better of Ducati wildcard Alvaro Bautista as he hit trouble towards the end.

Francesco Bagnaia snatched away a crucial Malaysian MotoGP pole position from Jorge Martin at the death after the Spaniard crashed on his final flying effort.

From the outset, it seemed Martin was once again the man to beat over a single lap as he posted a new lap record of the Sepang International Circuit as the opening runs concluded, the Pramac Ducati pilot banging in a 1:57.549s effort to head Gresini’s Alex Marquez.

Bagnaia meanwhile could only manage fifth in the opening salvo, the reigning world champion left with a stiff 0.445s deficit to make up on his championship rival.

He was thrown a bone during the final runs though after Martin asked a little too much from his machine into Turn 4, resulting in him losing the front of the bike and sliding off into the gravel – leaving Bagnaia up front and Martin powerless to stop his onslaught.

The Italian strung together a belting effort to record a 1:57.491s to grab the provisional pole by just 0.058s over Martin, with few others looking quick enough to deny him.

This is ultimately how the session would end as Bagnaia picked up his seventh pole of the year – his first since Catalunya over two months ago – while Martin held onto second by virtue of his strong opening effort, giving him a good opportunity to attack Bagnaia early in the races.

Enea Bastianini meanwhile found some much-needed form after escaping the clutches of Q1, the factory Ducati rider lapping just 0.099s away from team-mate Bagnaia to secure the final spot on the front row behind the title hopefuls.

Alex Marquez came up next for Gresini in fourth, while VR46 pairing Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi completed an all-Ducati top six. Marini looked to have the speed to challenge for pole before a late crash scuppered his chances.

Brad Binder was best of the rest in seventh for KTM, albeit well over half a second adrift of Bagnaia’s scorching benchmark.

Fabio Quartararo ended up eighth for Yamaha ahead of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, while the other factory KTM of Jack Miller completed the top ten.

Fabio Di Gianantonio took 11^th after crashing ahead of his final run, while Johann Zarco never posted a competitive tour after continually getting compromised by yellow flags.

Aleix Espargaro meanwhile missed out on the pole shootout despite looking much more at home on his Aprilia compared to Friday, primarily due to changes to the setup of his front forks. The adjustments meant he could at least grab 13^th on the grid.

Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli was one of the expected challengers to escape Q1, though he got distracted as Marc Marquez doggedly searched for a tow. Trying to shake off the Honda racer, he never got into his flow and could only manage a best effort half a second away from session leader Di Gianantonio.

This left him 15^th ahead of the other Honda of Joan Mir, while a crash for Marquez while trying to pass Augusto Fernandez on his quick lap left him a lowly 20^th for both races.

RNF Aprilia pair Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira struggled to make headway with their RS-GP’s and could secure only 18^th and 19^th respectively, while LCR Honda duo Takaaki Nakagami and Iker Lecuona also struggled en route to 21^st and 23^rd.

They sandwiched Ducati wildcard Alvaro Bautista, who struggled to make much headway with his Desmosedici after a tricky Friday. He managed to narrow the gap to the leading riders, though a mechanical failure late in Q1 meant he couldn’t improve on 22^nd.  

Alex Marquez led proceedings at the end of the opening day at Sepang for the Malaysian MotoGP event, while title hopefuls Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia secured Q2 spots.

The race was on in the early stages of the session as dark rain clouds loomed over the Sepang International Circuit, the majority of the pack aiming to bang in good lap times to protect from the possible precipitation.

Indeed, Honda’s Marc Marquez lapped just 0.002s adrift of FP1 leader Martin’s benchmark on his first flying lap. Brother Alex would smash this effort with a 1:58.705s just moments later, his time standing for a decent portion of the test.

Martin managed to eclipse it with a 1:58.523s as the session approached a thirds-distance, the Pramac Ducati ace heading out early on new tyres having struggled to put in a front-running effort early on due to traffic.

Fortunately for the riders, the rain ultimately never arrived and they were able to run their sessions largely as planned. This saw times steadily reduce as the outing progressed, though the battle for the top spot looked to be contested by Marquez, Martin and KTM’s Brad Binder.

Marquez sat top on a 1:59.227s before Martin then fired in the first sub-1:58s lap of the weekend, Binder narrowly missing out after having to roll off due to a crash for RNF Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez.

Marquez had a little more in the tank though and hit back at the death with a 1:57.823s, an effort enough to leave him at the top of the pile by 0.174s ahead of Martin as the session wound down.

Jack Miller was the surprise package on his KTM as the Aussie completed the opening day in Malaysia third overall just ahead of team-mate Binder, who had taken the best out of his tyres at the end.  

Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales was fifth ahead of VR46’s Luca Marini, while Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo ended up seventh overall despite losing his final effort due to coming across team-mate Franco Morbidelli touring on the racing line on his final attempt.

Bagnaia struggled to match the pace of his title rival once again, but still bagged eighth on his factory Ducati to secure an automatic pole shootout berth. Marco Bezzecchi was ninth for VR46, while the other Pramac entry of Johann Zarco rounded off the top ten and the guaranteed Q2 men.

Morbidelli missed out by fractions in 11^th overall just ahead of the other factory Ducati of Enea Bastianini, while Augusto Fernandez won the battle of the GasGas’ in 13^th.

Meanwhile, it was a tough day for Honda as Marc Marquez could manage only 15th as the fastest RC213V, just clear of Repsol team-mate Joan Mir while Takaaki Nakagami wound up down in 21^st for LCR.

Australia rostrum finisher Fabio di Gianantinio was also left with work to do on Saturday after his best gambit was enough for only 14^{th. At the same time,} Aleix had a horrendous day that saw him crash his Aprilia a total of four times across Friday’s two sessions.

Seemingly struggling with the front of his RS-GP, Espargaro went down at Turns 1, 5 and 9 across the test en route to a lowly 20^th in the final classification.

Ducati wildcard Alvaro Bautista also struggled to make an impression on his first premier-class race weekend since 2018. The freshly crowned double World Superbike champion struggled to close the gap to the leading runners as he got to grips with the Desmosedici, the Spaniard ending the day 22^nd overall and 2.4 seconds adrift of Marquez’s benchmark.

He did at least best LCR’s Iker Lecuona by a tenth-of-a-second, the Andorran standing in for the injured Alex Rins at the Italian outfit this weekend.

Reigning World Superbike champion Alvaro Bautista will take part in a wild-card MotoGP outing for the factory squad in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang in November.

The Spaniard – who is also currently leading the 2023 WSBK standings for the factory Ducati outfit – recently completed a couple of tests on the Italian marque’s premier class machine at Misano as a reward for his 2022 WSBK crown, his performance across both convincing Ducati that it should field Bautista in a one-off MotoGP encounter.

The Malaysian GP has been selected as it’s the first MotoGP event that takes place following the conclusion of the WSBK season, set for the 28^th/29^th October weekend at Jerez – two weeks before the contest at the Sepang International Circuit.

“I’m really happy to be able to race in MotoGP as a wildcard at Sepang, a track that I really like and that I’m happy to be back at since it’s not on the WorldSBK calendar,” said Bautista on his unexpected opportunity to return to the premier class in Malaysia.  

“The tests with the Ducati Desmosedici GP gave positive feedback: the feeling was good, and I had fun.

“I want to sincerely thank Ducati and Aruba.it because, without them, it would have been impossible to have this opportunity.”

The Malaysian GP will be Bautista’s first MotoGP outing since the end of his final full campaign in the series back in 2018, when he competed with then-satellite Ducati team Aspar – the three-time premier class rostrum finisher making a brief switch to the factory squad that year at the Australian GP to replace an injured Jorge Lorenzo, in which he finished an impressive fourth.

His Malaysian cameo marks the third and final event of the year Ducati will enter its Aruba.it-backed wild-carding Desmosedici, with test rider Michele Pirro having already run his first at Mugello in Italy, while the Italian’s second and final outing of the year will come in September’s San Marino GP at Misano.  

KTM MotoGP Team Manager Francesco Guidotti has admitted that the manufacturer “missed something” during the recent Sepang pre-season test, conceding that its expectations “were maybe too high.”

The Austrian marques riders spent the bulk of the test running well outside the top ten, with GasGas rider Pol Espargaro ending up as the highest-classified and fastest RC16 rider at the conclusion of the three-day jaunt – albeit in 14^th overall and nearly a second down on the pace-setting Ducati of Luca Marini.

Having been left confident over the progress it had made with its machine across the off-season following the comments from test rider Dani Pedrosa after the previous weeks shakedown test at the same venue, Guidotti admitted that KTM “missed something” in terms of overall pace relative to the competition.

“We did a massive amount of work, everybody from the riders to the mechanics put in an incredible effort and now it’s time to collect all the data and prepare the best we can for the Poritmao test,” began the Italian.

“The expectation was quite high and we missed something to be honest, so in the next weeks we have to work even harder to extract the best potential from what we tested.

“We did some very short runs, the amount of tyres available wasn’t enough to develop the bike – to set up the bike maybe – but to develop it we missed something.

“The weather also wasn’t helpful, but I’m not trying to find excuses we are working very hard and give our riders the best possible package.

“We are fairly happy, but not completely, our expectations were maybe too high so we have to work a lot in the next days.”

Guidotti says that the outfit is working to tweak the chassis of the RC16 to work better across all its pilots riding styles, though conceded that the short two day test at Portimao prior to the season-opening Portuguese Grand Prix won’t give it a lot of time to test changes.  

“The aero package was pretty helpful, the engine raised some question marks but we have data and we can work on that,” added Guidotti.

“As always the package is a compromise of different things like riding style, we are trying to adjust this too to find something better but we are pretty confident and satisfied of the job we did, but less so the laptime.

“We only have two days (in Portimao) which is one less than usual, the circumstances will be different as it won’t be hot like here, but there will be more preparation for the race which will only be a few days later.”

Luca Marini topped the timesheets on the final day of the opening MotoGP pre-season test of the year at the Sepang International Circuit ahead of reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia.

Sunday’s action was slow to get off the mark after the Malaysian circuit once again fell victim to rain showers overnight, though as the track dried activity began in earnest as the teams looked to finalise their 2023 packages ahead of the final test at Portimao next month.

Saturday pacesetter Jorge Martin quickly got down to business as he posted the fastest lap of the test to that point – a 1:58.204s – with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and day one leader Marco Bezzecchi breathing down his neck.

With track time running out the pace really began to hot up in the afternoon segment of the outing, with times dropping into the 1:57’s and edging close to Martin’s outright circuit lap record of 1:57.790s that he used to secure pole position for last year’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

This benchmark ultimately remained unbeaten though as VR46’s Marini banged in a 1:57.889s effort to secure a clean sweep for Ducati across all three days at Sepang, with Bagnaia snapping at his heels in second.

The Italian manufacturer ended up securing seven of the spots within the top ten with only the factory Aprilia pairing of Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales, as well as Honda’s Marc Marquez, getting a look in with Vinales going third fastest.

Enea Bastianini and Martin completed the top five on their respective Desmosedici’s ahead of Espargaro’s Aprilia, while Fabio Di Gianantonio shaded Bezzecchi for seventh on his Gresini-run Ducati, though Bezzecchi at least managed to win the prize for the day’s highest lap count on 61.

Alex Marquez ended the test ninth on the sister Gresini machine with brother Marc completing the top ten having elected to focus on only two bikes having tested a total of four RC213-V specifications across the opening two days, the original 2023 development prototypes the ones he elected to use.

Pol Espargaro ended up as the highest placed KTM RC16 rider in 13^th overall just under a second from the ultimate pace in what turned out to be a quiet three days for the Austrian manufacturer in general, factory men Brad Binder and Jack Miller ending Sunday 14^th and 18^th overall respectively.

Yamaha’s factory rider’s also decided to not chase outright laptime, with Fabio Quartararo 17^th quickest ahead of Franco Morbidelli in 20^th, though the duo head to Portimao happy with the top speed improvement seen from the M1 across the test – the bike looking to be losing only around two kilometres per hour to the pace setting Ducati’s.

Jorge Martin made it two from two for Ducati as he lead proceedings on a rain-affected day two of the opening pre-season MotoGP test of 2023 at Sepang.

The Pramac rider’s 1:58.736s was a few tenths-of-a-second adrift of Marco Bezzecchi’s Friday benchmark, though with rain causing problems throughout Saturday the field completed significantly less mileage than the opening day.

Martin’s outing wasn’t completely straightforward though after the one-time premier class race winner crashed in the afternoon, though he walked away unhurt.

Miguel Oliveria – who ended the day second quickest on his RNF Aprilia just 0.103s down on Martin – completed the most laps of the outing with 50, a full 17 circuits less than Martin and Maverick Vinales managed on Friday’s fully-dry running.

The bulk of the days mileage came in the afternoon with the track remaining largely damp following overnight showers, the tricky conditions catching out Friday pacesetter Bezzzecchi as the VR46 Ducati man crashed at Turn 5 just before the lunch break.

Pol Espargaro ended the day third overall on his Tech 3-run GasGas machine, with 2022 title contenders Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia completing the top five.

Raul Fernandez ensured a solid Saturday for the RNF outfit by posting a time enough for sixth , though he completed only just over half the laps of team-mate Oliveira.

Luca Marini was seventh for VR46 just 0.006s adrift of the Spaniard, with Alex Rins eighth on his LCR Honda having completed 28 laps across the day.

Enea Bastianini was ninth on his factory-run Ducati Desmosedici, while KTM climbed the leaderboard following a quiet opening day courtesy of Brad Binder who completed the top ten just 0.494s adrift of Martin.

Marc Marquez was once again Honda’s highest representative in 13^th as he continued to evaluate several different bikes the Japanese marque brought to Sepang as it looks to nail down a future development path, the six-time premier class champion’s team-mate Joan Mir ending the day 16^th.

Aleix Espargaro completed the fewest laps of the day with just 26 tours of the Malaysian venue, his best effort of 2:00.017s leaving him 20^th on the timesheets just behind team-mate Vinales and KTM’s Jack Miller.