Enea Bastianini was back on top with his first win in Malaysian GP of 2023 MotoGP season from Alex Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia.
It was a clean start to MotoGP race in Malaysian GP as Turn 1 saw Ducati’s Enea Bastianini took the lead from third with Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez in second from fourth. They dropped pole-sitter Francesco Bagnaia on his Ducati to third.
Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin started well but lost out at Turn 1 to drop to fifth behind VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi. Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo started well in sixth from KTM’s Jack Miller, with VR46’s Luca Marini in eighth from KTM’s Brad Binder.
The Top 10 saw Gresini’s Fabio di Giannantonio ahead of the Aprilia pair of Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro. At the front, Bastianini kept Marquez at bay by just, as Martin cleared Bezzecchi for fourth and started to chase Bagnaia in the fight for third.
The two MotoGP title contenders went wheel to wheel and exchanged places a couple of times in two laps, but Bagnaia managed to keep Martin at bay. Bezzecchi was fifth still from Miller who cleared Quartararo as di Giannantonio moved up to eighth.
Binder was ninth from Marini in the Top 10 as Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli was up to 11th from Vinales. The Spaniard’s teammate Espargaro had a crash to become the third Aprilia to be out after the RNF pair of Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez.
Honda’s Joan Mir also had a fall early on. The retirement list started to increase after a crash for Binder and LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami. While all this happened, Bastianini had a comfortable lead from Marquez and Bagnaia, who stretched out from Martin.
Bezzecchi was fifth as Quartararo re-passed Miller for sixth. Di Giannantonio was eighth still from Morbidelli who had a wheel to wheel battle for ninth with Marini in the Top 10. The inroads for both the Yamaha riders continued on as the race progressed.
Quartararo passed Bezzecchi for fourth as Morbidelli passed Miller who also cleared di Giannantonio in the process to be seventh. At the front, Bastianini was calm in the front wo register his first MotoGP win in an injury-filled 2023 season in Malaysian GP.
Marquez was second from Bagnaia, with Martin in fourth ahead of Quartararo, Bezzecchi, Morbidelli, Miller, di Giannantonio and Marini in the Top 10. In 11th was Vinales from Zarco as Honda’s Marc Marquez was 13th ahead of GASGAS Tech 3 pair of Augusto Fernandez and Pol Espargaro in the Top 15 points places.
LCR’s Iker Lecuona was 16th from Ducati’s wildcard Alvaro Bautista with Nakagami managed to continue on to be 18th.
Here are the results: https://x.com/MotoGP/status/1723613029168808035?s=20
