The penultimate race of the 2024 MotoGP season was a rollercoaster with the championship at stake and a restart in the main race on Sunday due to a crash on the opening lap. Ultimately, Francesco Bagnaia (who crashed out in the Sprint) took the chequered flag ahead of championship leader Jorge Martin (who won the Sprint).
- Martin leads standings by 24 points
- M. Marquez crashes out bur rejoins to finish 12th
- Quartararo finishes sixth, highest for a Japanese bike this season
MotoGP Malaysia: Opening lap incident
The original start of the 2024 Malaysian GP was nulled because of a collision involving both KTM riders - Jack Miller and Brad Binder - and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo. All three riders were lucky enough to walk away without sustaining major injuries, but this incident resulted in the race being red flagged and restarted.
Bagnaia vs Martin
Both the championship contenders fought tooth-and-nail for the lead in the challenging and sweltering hot Malaysian GP. Ultimately, after about three laps of going back and forth, Championship leader Martin backed off and played it safe to finish second. Bagnaia kept running an almost unmatched pace at the front and ultimately took the chequered flag in first place, taking home his tenth victory this season. This also means that the title fight will roll on to the final round.
The only other rider on the grid who was able to match the Ducati GP24s of Bagnaia was, as usual, eight-time World Champion Marc Marquez. He was running in third place, just behind Martin when he tucked the front and crashed. Rejoining as soon as he could, he could only manage finishing P12. This handed the final podium spot to Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, but Marquez did just enough to pass him for third place in the overall standings.
Top six finish for Yamaha
Quartararo followed up his fifth place Sprint result with a sixth place finish in the main race. This was despite suffering minor injuries in the opening lap incident with the two KTMs. In what was another positive step for Yamaha, Alex Rins finished in eighth, two places behind his French teammate.
2024 MotoGP standings
Martin is still in control of the Championship with a comfortable 24-point lead over Bagnaia. Despite his crash and owing to his 12th place finish, Marc Marquez is third in the standings ahead of Bagnaia’s teammate Bastianini. The final round of the 2024 MotoGP season will likely be held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on November 15-17, following the cancellation of the Valencia round.
2024 Malaysian GP results
| 2024 Malaysian MotoGP results | ||
|---|---|---|
| Position | Rider | Team |
| 1 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati |
| 2 | Jorge Martin | Pramac Ducati |
| 3 | Enea Bastianini | Ducati |
| 4 | Alex Marquez | Gresini Ducati |
| 5 | Pedro Acosta | GASGAS Tech3 |
| 6 | Fabio Quartararo | Yamaha |
| 7 | Maverick Vinales | Aprilia |
| 8 | Alex Rins | Yamaha |
| 9 | Marco Bezzecchi | VR46 Ducati |
| 10 | Augusto Fernandez | GASGAS Tech3 |
| 11 | Johann Zarco | LCR Honda |
| 12 | Marc Marquez | Gresini Ducati |
| 13 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia |
| 14 | Franco Morbidelli | Pramac Ducati |
| 15 | Luca Marini | Repsol Honda |
| 16 | Raul Fernandez | Trackhouse Aprilia |
| 17 | Andrea Iannone | VR46 Ducati |
| 18 | Lorenzo Savadori | Trackhouse Aprilia |
| NC | Jack Miller | KTM |
| NC | Brad Binder | KTM |
| NC | Takaaki Nakagami | LCR Honda |
| NC | Joan Mir | Repsol Honda |
