The Motorcycle World Championship lands this weekend in Malaysia. The Sepang circuit hosts the nineteenth race of the MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 season. In the queen category, the World Cup is still in a fist. In the last race, at Phillip Island, there was a change of lead.
Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) could already be world champion in Malaysia after the current champion Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) fell in Australia and said goodbye to the fight. However, the fight continues.
The MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix race takes place this Sunday, October 23 at 09:00 Spanish time, while the Moto2 and Moto3 races will be at 07:20 and 06:00 respectively. The La Vanguardia website will offer live minute by minute of the race in the queen category.
The three candidates complicated life in the classification. Bagnaia will start ninth, Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) tenth and Quartararo, still with options, twelfth. All three drivers crashed on Saturday. The qualifying session was dominated by Jorge Martín. The Spanish Ducati rider set a record by taking the second pole position in a row after him.
Martín stopped the clock in 1:57.790, the only driver to lap in that second and lowering the record that the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo had since 2019 (1:58.303), with an advantage of more than four tenths of a second over the Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati Desmosedici GP21) and more than six compared to fellow Spaniard Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda RC 213 V).
He will be accompanied by Marc Márquez, who came third. Despite this, the Repsol Honda rider assured after the session between smiles and a certain vehemence that "to make a 'top five' here, all the virgins have to line up".
"In Australia I said that if it squared off, it could be on the podium and it squared off, it could be on the podium, and here a 'top five' all the virgins have to line up," he said between smiles, to acknowledge that "a real position is from the seven to ten or eight to ten and that's how it is seeing the rhythms".
he Italian leader of the World Championship will start 9th after suffering a crash with 2:45 to go until the end of the session. Eight riders sneaked in -Martín, Bastianini, Márquez, Bezzecchi, Rins, Marini, Morbidelli and Viñales-. While Fabio Quartararo, with obvious discomfort in his left hand due to a fall in the last training session, signed a very discreet 12th place, last of Q2, which will force him to redouble his efforts to avoid the Bagnaia title.
Aleix Espargaró, the third contender for the title, also fell. The Aprilia rider, who has had intestinal problems all weekend, crashed on the last qualifying lap when he was 9th. He finished tenth. He is forced to come back and a feat if he wants to get to Valencia with options.
Pecco Bagnaia can already be champion in Malaysia if he adds 11 points more than Quartararo. For this, he would have enough winning the race and that the Frenchman does not get on the podium, no matter what Aleix Espargaró does. If the Ducati rider was 2nd, he would need Fabio to finish 7th or worse, and Aleix 3rd or worse.
