MotoGP 2016: Grand Prix of Malaysia

Ducati Rider Andrea Dovizioso took victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix to become the ninth different race winner in MotoGP this season. Dovizioso, 30, started from pole after the race in Sepang had been delayed by rain, but dropped to third early on. He overhauled fellow Italian Valentino Rossi for the lead with five laps left after Rossi ran wide and pushed home his advantage. It was only his second MotoGP victory in 159 races.

Rossi finished second ahead of Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo to secure runners-up spot in the championship, while Spanish world champion Marc Marquez, who had been hampered by illness over the past few days, crashed out of fourth place during the race and eventually finished 11th. Dovizioso made his charge with six laps remaining, surging into the lead as Rossi faded with a worn front tyre. He left the nine-time world champion in his wake, Dovizioso extending his advantage with each and every lap.

Easing off on the final tour, Dovizioso crossed the line 3.1 seconds ahead to secure both his second career MotoGP race win — his first since 2009 and first for Ducati — and Ducati’s first multi-win season since 2010. Jorge Lorenzo came home third after a steady race, leading the early corners before slipping into a steady rhythm that kept him upright to the finish — a story many of those ahead of him were unable to tell at race’s end.

Jack Miller led the second group in the early laps before sliding back to eighth at the finish — the first Honda home — with Pol Espargaro and Danilo Petrucci rounding out the top 10. Marquez was next from Eugene Laverty; Aleix Espargaro 13th after an off-track excursion took him out of the lead group in the early laps, with Bradley Smith and Scott Redding rounding out the point scorers in 14th and 15th. Hiroshi Aoyama, Stefan Bradl and Tito Rabat were the only other finishers.

Daniel Ricciardo wins Malaysia Grand Prix

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo held off hard charging team mate Max Verstappen to win an incident filled 2016 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix, after long time leader Lewis Hamilton retired following a fiery Mercedes engine failure. In the second Mercedes Nico Rosberg came through the pack after early drama to finish third and extend his championship lead over Hamilton to 23 points.

That was despite Rosberg picking up a 10-second time penalty for a mid-race clash with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who finished fourth. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas took fifth ahead of the Force India’s of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg, split by McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, who came from the back row to take seventh. Team mate Jenson Button was ninth in his 300th Grand Prix, as fellow Briton Jolyon Palmer took his first F1 point with 10th for Renault.

Ricciardo finally got his payback for his Monaco loss earlier in the year, as he came through a brutal battle with Verstappen which became one for victory after Hamilton’s Mercedes had blown up when well ahead on the 41st lap. It was the fourth win of his F1 career. Bottas executed a fine one-stop strategy for Williams in a race in which his team mate Felipe Massa started from the pit lane and finished 13th after his car stalled at the start of the formation lap.

Carlos Sainz was 11th for Toro Rosso ahead of Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber, Massa, brake-troubled Daniil Kvyat in the second Toro Rosso, and the battling Manors of Pascal Wehrlein and Esteban Ocon, the latter having picked up not one, but two five-second time penalties for speeding in the pit lane. Romain Grosjean spun into the gravel and retirement on Lap 9 after a suspected brake failure on his Haas coming into the final turn, and team mate Esteban Gutierrez looked to have similar issues when the left-front wheel flew from the Mexican’s car at speed on lap 42. Renault’s Kevin Magnussen and Sauber’s Felipe Nasr were the other non-finishers.