Bastianini back to his best

As other Ducati riders wrestled for the championship, Enea Bastianini made a timely reminder of his quality by dominating the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Bastianini put a painful year behind him by leading every lap in Sepang and beating Sprint winner Alex Marquez by 1.5s, while Francesco Bagnaia importantly claimed third, convincingly ahead of championship rival Jorge Martin after a brief battle.

Having lost out head to head in the Saturday Sprint, it was an important ride for Bagnaia, who carries a 14-point lead into the final doubleheader at Qatar and Valencia.

Australia’s Jack Miller got a strong start and completed an encouraging weekend with an eighth place.

Being a fifth career win, but first in factory colours for Ducati, it was a shot in the arm for Bastianini, who has endured a horrible 2023 marred by early injuries with the mighty Malaysia ride a sign the “Beast” is back.

It was an all Ducati top six on the grid as Bastianini, Martin and Bagnaia went side by side into turn one and just when the #89 appeared to thread the needle in the middle, ran wide on corner exit.

This saw Martin slip from first to fifth, while the two non championship contenders surged ahead.

As the pack emerged from the tight opening four corners, Bastianini and Alex Marquez quickly opened a gap over Bagnaia, Bezzecchi and Martin, while Miller put in a big first lap, charging from 10th to sixth.

The Pramac Ducati rider made an important move on Bezzecchi for fourth to be on the back wheel of Bagnaia and a thrilling fight between the heavy hitters followed.

On lap three Martin launched a dive-bomb on Bagnaia at turn 14 but the #1 hit back and instantly clawed third back after a close call almost evoking memories of Marc Marquez v Valentino Rossi 2015, but eight years later they got through cleanly.

Martin had another crack at turn four on the following lap, but again Bagnaia had the perfect response as they stunningly ran side by side along the following left-handed sweeper.

As the championship contenders battled, the top two opened a 1.5s advantage.

Further back Joan Mir fell at turn four to bring up Repsol Honda’s half century of crashes in 2023.

Bagnaia upped his pace on lap five to open seven tenths of breathing space on Martin as Miguel Oliveira crashed at turn nine.

As riders went into tyre preservation mode, the are settled down at the halfway mark.

Those who could not survive this period were Aleix Espargaro, who ended a weekend full of incidents with a race-ending one at turn nine, while Brad Binder and Takagi Nakagarmi also bit the dust.

During this period Miller started to lose ground following his outstanding start, losing sixth to Fabio Quartararo.

The factory Yamaha did not take long to steal fifth from the battling Bezzecchi, whose faint championship hopes started fading.

Up front the top four had spread out with the best part of 2s between each of the podium contenders, while Bagnaia had pulled more than 7s on Martin.

The top six spots remained unchanged during a quiet second half of the race, while Miller lost seventh to Franco Morbidelli.

With Bastianini back to his best and Bagnaia convincingly beating Martin in a head to head battle, Malaysia well and truly belonged to Ducati.

Martin and Pramac Ducati will aim to fight back in the penultimate round at Qatar next weekend.

Photo by Gold and Goose / LAT Images

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