Pedro Acosta won the sprint race at the Malaysian Grand Prix on Saturday, the 19th of MotoGP's 22 rounds, at the Sepang International Circuit. The Spaniard on the KTM completed the ten laps ahead of Marc Marquez of Ducati Lenovo, who finished 0.578s behind, and Marco Bezzecchi of Aprilia, third at 1.31s.
The result that reshaped the championship, though, did not happen on track: Jorge Martin, second in the standings, withdrew from the weekend on Saturday morning and scored no points.
Marquez stretches his lead without winning
With the 9 points for second place in the sprint and a blank for his rival, Marquez now has 374 points against Martin's 355 — a 19-point margin, almost double the 10 he started the weekend with. Bezzecchi is third on 322.
Six riders remain mathematically in contention: besides the top three, Acosta (275), Ai Ogura (265) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (257). Raul Fernandez, seventh on 236 points and also out of this round, has run out of chances.
Martin's injury
Martin fractured his distal radius — a wrist bone — in a crash in the Phillip Island sprint and was back on the bike six days later at Sepang. He pulled out after Saturday morning practice.
"I tried, I tried my best, I tried to ride, but for sure the process of healing is still early," he said. Asked by The Race about the championship, he was blunt: "Maybe I can win it, but for me it's already lost." He intends to race in Qatar next weekend, if the round goes ahead.
The sprint
Alex Marquez of Gresini started from pole and was leading when he crashed. Jack Miller of Pramac Yamaha came into the pits because of the rain and was left without his spare bike, which was not ready.
Ai Ogura finished fourth, Di Giannantonio fifth and Francesco Bagnaia sixth. Brazilian rookie Diogo Moreira, of Pro Honda LCR, crossed the line eighth, 9.001s behind the winner — ahead of names such as Enea Bastianini, Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo.
The main Malaysian GP race is set for Sunday. With a 19-point cushion and a rival riding on a fractured wrist through the final three rounds, the arithmetic no longer depends on what Marquez does on track but on how much Martin can stand to do on the bike.
With information from Crash.net, The Race and Motorsport.com.
