Marc Marquez took a comfortable
ninth victory of the 2018 MotoGP season in the Malaysian Grand Prix after
long-time leader Valentino Rossi crashed. From second on the grid, Rossi
outdragged poleman Johann Zarco to take the lead into the first corner and from
there proceeded to build a lead of more than a second.
Marquez meanwhile quickly set about
making up for his six-place grid penalty for impeding Andrea Iannone in
qualifying and by the end of the fifth lap of 20 he had taken up station behind
Rossi. Initially Rossi was able to extend the gap over his former arch-rival,
but as the race moved into its second half Marquez began to chip away at the
Yamaha rider's advantage.
Closing in at around a tenth per
lap, Marquez had managed to get within 0.6 seconds of Rossi when the Italian
rider suffered a low-speed crash at Turn 1 with three laps to go, denying the
crowd a repeat of the pair's infamous 2015 Sepang duel. Marquez inherited a
lead of four seconds over Zarco as a result of Rossi's incident, and from there
he was able to cruise to a straightforward 1.8s win and clinch the
constructors' title for Honda.
Zarco was passed for second by the
Suzuki of Alex Rins on the final lap at Turn 4, allowing Rins to equal his
career-best result, while Zarco held on for third to claim his first podium
finish since May. Maverick Vinales could well have contended for victory but
for his poor grid slot of 11th, which left him losing time stuck behind the
Nieto Ducati of Alvaro Bautista in the early laps.
Pedrosa
fifth place equals his best result of a difficult 2018 season, while Andrea
Dovizioso endured a low-key run to sixth on the best of the Ducati’s. Hafizh
Syahrin stormed from 23rd and last on the grid to 12th on the opening lap, and
managed to secure the final top 10 position on a day he became the first
Malaysian to start a premier class grand prix. Aleix Espargaro was 11th ahead
of Franco Morbidelli, LCR Honda stand-in Stefan Bradl, Takaaki Nakagami and
Bradley Smith.
No comments:
Post a Comment