Andrea Dovizioso beat Ducati teammate
Jorge Lorenzo in a wet Malaysian Grand Prix to keep his slim MotoGP title hopes
alive, as Marc Marquez could manage no better than fourth place. In wet
conditions, the two factories Ducati’s of Dovizioso and Lorenzo had the clear
measure of the opposition, although it was the Tech 3 Yamaha of Johann Zarco
that led the early going.
Marquez fleetingly led into the
first corner with a great start from seventh, but ran wide to allow Zarco and
Lorenzo through into the top two positions. Dovizioso settled into fourth and
pressured Marquez until finding his way past at Turn 14 on the fourth lap, as
the top four escaped from the rest of the field. Zarco stretched a lead of
almost two seconds before Lorenzo began to reel in the Frenchman, the only one
of the top four who opted for a soft compound rear tyre.
Lorenzo made his move on the ninth lap,
with Dovizioso following through a few corners later to establish a one-two out
front. With Marquez unable to make an impression on Zarco in fourth, it
meant Dovizioso could take the title fight to Valencia by finishing ahead
of Lorenzo, who received what appeared to be a coded instruction on his
dashboard to move aside. It took until lap 16 for the positions to switch, as
Lorenzo ran wide at the final corner to allow Dovizioso through and seal his
sixth victory of the year by a margin of 0.748s.
Zarco hung on for his second podium
of the year, a further eight seconds back, and a similar margin ahead of
Marquez in fourth. Marquez's advantage heading to the finale is cut to 21
points, meaning an 11th-place finish in Valencia will be enough for the Honda
rider to seal the crown, even if Dovizioso wins. Pole man Dani Pedrosa slipped
to fifth by the end of the opening lap, and remained in that position for the
rest of the event, albeit 11 seconds behind teammate Marquez.
Scott Redding spent several laps
in sixth, but slipped back to 13th in the closing laps behind Alvaro
Bautista (Aspar Ducati) and Bradley Smith (KTM). Cal Crutchlow was the final
points-scorer in 15th after dropping to 21st on the opening lap, while Michael
van der Mark missed out on a point in his maiden MotoGP outing on the second
Tech 3 Yamaha. Andrea Iannone also failed to score in what turned out to be
another dismal outing for Suzuki, as Alex Rins crashed twice before
finally being black-flagged for shortcutting his way back to the pits. Sam
Lowes (Aprilia), Karel Abraham (Aspar Ducati) and Loris Baz (Avintia Ducati)
likewise all crashed out.
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