Marquez dominant in sprint, Martin slashes Bagnaia’s lead

As the title rivals Bagnaia and Pramac’s Martin started first and second on the grid, all eyes were on the thrilling race becoming a tense standoff between them, with the spotlight on Bagnaia who secured the holeshot.

However, a strong push from Alex Marquez proved too much for Bagnaia to handle, and his factory Ducati faced an issue with debris getting caught in the front right wing, slowing him down and causing him to drop to third place.

Marquez claimed the victory at the sprint with his lead over Martin exceeding a second, trimming two vital points from Bagnaia’s current lead to narrow the gap to just 11 points before the upcoming grand prix on Sunday.

Bagnaia fiercely held onto third amid the late pressure from his resurgent team-mate Enea Bastianini as Brad Binder outperformed KTM team-mate Jack Miller for fifth place.

Although Alex Marquez initially qualified fourth but quickly rose to third off the start line behind Bastianini and Bagnaia, Martin struggled and fell to fourth.

Marquez swiftly overtakes Bastianini for second at Turn 4 on the opening lap as Martin passes the factory Ducati rider for third place at the penultimate corner.

On the second lap, Marquez attempted to overtake Bagnaia at the last corner but ran wide, allowing Martin to move ahead into second place.

Later in the race, Marquez swiftly regained the position into Turn 4 on the third lap, eventually seizing the lead from Bagnaia into Turn 9 two laps later.

Meanwhile, Bagnaia’s struggles persisted when debris became attached to the right wing of his Ducati on lap seven, causing him to quickly fall behind Martin and succumb to the pursuit of Bastianini.

Although the debris freed itself on lap eight, the gap to Martin was insurmountable.

Marquez extended his lead to 1.589s to secure his second sprint win of the campaign, with Martin coming in second, and Bagnaia maintaining a 0.208s lead over Bastianini.

Bastianini briefly lost fourth place to Binder at the last corner but managed to reclaim the position by 0.068s on the drag to the finish line.

Miller finished sixth, 1.008s further back, with VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi, Pramac’s Johann Zarco, and the second VR46 bike of Luca Marini rounding out the top nine.

Bezzecchi, positioned third in the standings, remained in the mathematical championship contention despite being 83 points adrift with only 99 left up for grabs in 2023.

Aprilia was unable to secure any points in the sprint as Maverick Vinales only managed 10th place, while Franco Morbidelli was the leading Yamaha in 11th after Fabio Quartararo dropped to 16th from eighth.

Both factory Honda riders suffered crashes, with Marc Marquez finishing 21st after rejoining, and Joan Mir finishing in last place, while Ducati wildcard Alvaro Bautista found himself sandwiched between them in 22nd.

MotoGP Malaysian GP – Sprint results: