SEPANG, Malaysia, Oct 31 (Reuters) – KTM’s Pedro Acosta won a thrilling Malaysian Grand Prix sprint at the Sepang International Circuit on Saturday, while Ducati’s Marc Marquez finished second, capitalising on MotoGP title rival Jorge Martin’s withdrawal.
Gresini Racing’s pole sitter Alex Marquez crashed out of the lead on lap three, while Trackhouse rider Ai Ogura, who led for most of the 10-lap sprint, conceded positions towards the end to finish fourth, behind Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi.
Rain had threatened to play spoilsport in Sepang but the leading pack crossed the finish line of the 10-lap sprint just before the heavens opened up.
“Normally in mixed conditions I don’t do a good job. But anyway, today was the day to try,” Acosta said after his second sprint victory of the season.
“I was playing for nothing. Also knowing that Marc was behind fighting for the championship … It was my opportunity to try to make something different from this.”
Martin withdrew after persistent wrist pain hampered his comeback from a fracture, with the Spaniard acknowledging that his title hopes were “already lost”.
The sprint podium extended reigning champion Marc’s lead over Martin to 19 points, with the Ducati rider set to increase his advantage further in Sunday’s race.
‘I DIDN’T WANT TO LEAD’
Marc said he was happy to finish second, avoiding any risks in treacherous conditions in some parts of the circuit.
“The guys that are not fighting for the championship can take more risk. I was calm,” Marc said.
“I had the pace, but I didn’t want to lead the race because the one that arrives first is the one that normally crashes.”
Alex had snatched pole position from his brother, and the Gresini Racing rider stormed into the lead at turn one, while Marc fell to fourth when he was overtaken by an aggressive Ogura, who forced Acosta to take evasive action.
But dark clouds loomed over the circuit while spots of rain appeared at the track and Alex — who won the race here last year — crashed out of the lead on lap three at turn 13, giving Ogura the lead.
Prima Pramac’s Jack Miller gambled on an early pit stop, but the Australian was left furious after his team failed to have his spare Yamaha bike fitted with wet tyres in time.
BIKE SWAP GAMBLE
Only the backmarkers rolled the dice on a bike swap while the leaders stayed out, convinced that the rapidly drying track did not justify a switch to wet tyres.
Ogura and Acosta traded places with three laps remaining, but the Japanese rider came off worse in the exchange, leaving the door open for Marc to overtake and move into second while Bezzecchi also climbed to third.
“I knew I could manage well to have something for the end, and then the rain came, so it was a little bit unexpected and I saw the others were struggling a bit,” said Bezzecchi, who is 52 points behind Marc in third.
“Step by step, I was catching (up) and I was closer. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch them early enough to try to battle with Marc.”
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard)
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