Winners
Enea Bastianini
This season ‘The Beast’ was looking less bestial and more ‘whimpering puppy’ as he struggled to heal his fragile body. One overly enthusiastic sneeze by the delicate Italian and an important bone, or bones, would splinter leaving him out of racing for the next few weeks.
But finally, after almost a full season, The Bastard was back and looking for revenge.
In the sprint race Enea played nicely and sat behind Bagnaia knowing that he wasn’t allowed to overtake him – like last season. But in the main race the brittle Ducati rider stormed off into the distance and won the race like his calcium supplements depended on it.
His victory has come at a very convenient time. Employers of the year, Ducati, have been making noises that if Jorge Martin does win the championship then they would consider moving him to the factory squad and demoting Enea to the Primark team. Will this win be enough to stop that happening? Maybe.
Rossi fans/Marquez haters
If there’s one internet constant it’s that the Rossi fanatics will squeal with venom that their loathed villain Marc Marquez is cheating in qualifying by always looking for a tow. Veins rapidly and violently pulsate on their foreheads sending their ‘46’ caps askew as they frantically type out demands for his execution online. All of which makes the entire pantomime rather funny.
It’s not cheating but the Spanish Antichrist does usually take it to a point where it ought to be. But who really cares when it causes this much amusement and blood pressure issues?
However, the bitter yellows finally got their day as it fell spectacularly wrong for Marc in Q1. The Honda rider was attempting to follow and gain a tow from Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli – which in itself highlights the problems he must be having with his bike. Morbidelli though was having none of it and simply rode around slowly (even for him) waving his arms to Marquez like he was being attacked by a persistent wasp.
The comedy outcome of the pseudo-drama was that Morbidelli failed to make it to Q2 for the billionth time and Marquez ended up qualifying in 21st position.
Alex Marquez
Alex, the AliExpress version of Marc, has lived in his brother’s shadow for so long that his rickets are causing permanent deformation. But, like the Scottish, every now and again he gets a glimpse of sunlight.
Sepang was just such a time. Peculiarly fast all weekend ‘Marquez Lite’ would go on a rampant charge to the front and then win the sprint race in spectacular style. His second place in the main event gave him the highest combined score of the weekend and moved him within striking distance of Jack Miller and Fabio Quartarararararo in the championship.
Losers
Tyres and aero
Sometimes even when enough’s enough it’s actually not enough. And we’ve all had enough of the ongoing tyre and aerodynamic issues MotoGP has been lumbered with.
You know the score so rather than bang on about it more let’s move on…
Jorge Martin
We’ve not heard much complaints about front tyre pressures from the Primark Ducati rider recently – mainly because he’s been at the front unaffected. But at Sepang all that changed as he struggled and failed to overtake Bagnaia for the entire race.
After the race, and rather suddenly, Jorge was chiming up claiming that the problems he suffered were massively unfair and MotoGP needs to change. How exactly it meant he finished 7 seconds behind Bagnaia was conveniently left unanswered.
Malaysians
Imagine paying for this rubbish? It was bad enough getting out of bed to watch the race on an illegal stream (which we’ve heard people do) so imagine the misery the poor locals went through actually paying good money to witness this?
The MotoGP race was the worst of the season. The result was interesting – but the racing made F1 looking like a fun-filled, crash-fest of chaotic madness by comparison. Trackside reports claim that many spectators were queuing for the toilet even though they didn’t need to go.
Luckily the crowd the Moto3 youngsters delivered yet another spectacular and wildly unpredictable race.
Alvaro Bautista
Imagine being the biggest disappointment in the most disappointing race of the year. That was Bautista – who let himself, World Superbike and his family and friends down.
Having won the WSBK title the previous week the ex-boy band racer/vocalist was aiming to show that he was a champion through skill and not because of his 30kph speed advantage over the rest of the field. MotoGP, on a Ducati, was the perfect opportunity to silence the critics and show that the WSBK boys are every bit a match for the MotoGP prima donnas.
Sadly Bautista was terrible. ‘Slowest and last’ sums his weekend up perfectly.
In his defence Alvaro was keen to point out that his problems were mainly due to a mystery injury he picked up in testing that no one saw or knew of. Exactly what we’d have said in his situation too.