Bagnaia again but Quartararo stays in the hunt
MOTOGP SEPANG (MYS) 23 OCTOBER ROUND 19/20
It is fitting that the two standout riders of the 2022 Motogp season put in championship-worthy performances in a Malaysian Grand Prix that had so much hinging on it for both Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo. For Bagnaia, it was his first chance to secure the title and end a 15-year drought for Ducati. For Quartararo, it was his last chance to salvage his fading championship defence. Throughout the Sepang weekend, it was never apparent which way the scales would tip.
Bagnaia was outside of the top 10 after Friday’s only dry running, and a crash in FP3 chasing Quartararo left him in Q1. A second crash in Q2 left Bagnaia ninth on the grid, but Quartararo couldn’t capitalise as he struggled to 12th.
At the start of the 20-lap race, Bagnaia “risked a bit” into the heavy braking zone for Turn 1 to leap from ninth to second. Quartararo, seeing this, knew he had to follow suit with his own similarly brave charge. Moving up to sixth, Quartararo quickly took fifth away from Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli at Turn 9.
Bagnaia’s pace was no match for that of poleman Jorge Martin on his Pramac Ducati out front, so settled into his own rhythm as he faced the attentions of Gresini’s Enea Bastianini behind.
As Marc Marquez struggled for pace on his Honda, fourth went to Quartararo at the start of lap five when the six-time premier-class world champion ran wide at Turn 1. So far, Quartararo was keeping his title hopes alive.
Then, on lap seven, Martin crashed out of the lead, while behind VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi soon moved ahead of Marquez for fourth. All of a sudden, Quartararo’s time on the Motogp throne looked as if it only had 13 laps. A win for Bagnaia and fourth for Quartararo would have been enough for the Ducati rider to finish the contest.
While he had to fend off Bastianini, Bagnaia was in a far better position than Quartararo. Bezzecchi was only a second behind the Yamaha rider when they crossed the line at the end of lap 10. That gap would come down to under half a second at one stage and Quartararo knew that it would be game over if Bezzecchi came past him, the superior speed of the Ducati unbeatable for a Yamaha rider. And so he pushed, extracting the absolute maximum from the M1 package, as he has done all year.
Third would be enough to keep the title battle alive and, by the end of lap 16, Quartararo had pulled the gap out to over a second again as the squabbling at the front allowed him to edge closer to his nearest title rival.
Second proved a bridge too far, but Quartararo’s first podium since August’s Austrian GP was one of the most important of his career and it was a ride that even Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi congratulated him for in parc ferme.
It was a ride just as noteworthy as that of Bagnaia, who overtook Bastianini on lap 14 having briefly lost the lead three tours earlier. Concerned faces among
Ducati management deliberated what to do regarding factory orders, but Bastianini’s intentions remained a last-lap overtake.
It never happened and Ducati batted away suggestions it interfered. While it may not have, it probably should have done. This race will surely shape the intra-team dynamics in 2023, but for the time being it ended Bastianini’s outside title hopes.
But Bagnaia does have one hand on
the trophy now as his lead stands at 23 with the Valencia final looming. Quartararo must win, Bagnaia simply needs two points. Nothing, however, about this 2022 championship battle has been predictable.
What was predictable was Marquez’s non-existent podium charge. Commentators couldn’t stop pegging him for a podium charge after taking a third in qualifying not even Marquez understood. But he insisted top three wasn’t his real pace on the 2022 Honda, and seventh at the chequered flag was a result he “expected”.
Marquez lost out to Bezzecchi, Suzuki’s Alex Rins and the recovering Jack Miller – who was 21st at one point on the first lap – and headed KTM’S Brad Binder, Pramac’s Johann Zarco and Aleix Espargaro. Bereft of grip and frustrated at Aprilia’s form during the flyaway races, the “too big dream” of the Spaniard’s finally ended in Malaysia. However, that the title was even a possibility to begin with is an achievement Aprilia must never lose sight of.