Race report

MotoGP Malaysian GP: Acosta beats Marquez in tense sprint

Alex Marquez crashed out of the lead, allowing his fellow Spaniards to battle for the win

Pedro Acosta claimed his second career sprint victory with a win for KTM in an edgy Saturday race at Sepang.

World championship leader Marc Marquez extended his advantage over the absent Jorge Martin to 19 points by taking second place.

It was an intriguing contest, with ever-present rain drops threatening to gain in severity at any time. Several riders further down the pack did in fact gamble on changing bikes in the hopes that the rain might intensify - but the serious downpour only came when the riders were celebrating afterwards.

That it was Acosta with the gold medal around his neck had much to do with polesitter Alex Marquez crashing out of the lead on the third tour of the Sepang circuit. Having grabbed the initiative at the first corner, the Gresini Ducati rider had looked in control of proceedings until that point.

Alex's departure left Ai Ogura at the head of the field, but with only a narrow advantage over Acosta, Marc Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi. Ogura had earlier worked his way ahead of the first two in an aggressive run through the opening two corners of the race.

The Dutch Grand Prix winner was only able to hold the lead until lap eight, however. That's when Acosta made his move. Stubborn defence by Ogura ultimately also allowed Marquez to take second, with Bezzecchi demoting the Japanese rider to fourth a lap later.

Acosta hung on for the win ahead of his 2027 factory Ducati team-mate, who could be satisfied with nine points after injured title rival Jorge Martin withdrew from proceeedings earlier in the day.

Acosta now has a brace of sprint wins to his name, with the other also coming in Asia, at the season opener in Thailand. He broke his Sunday race duck when he won the Austrian Grand Prix a few weeks ago.

For much of the race, fifth place was an all-Italian battle between Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Enea Bastianini. But late in proceedings, Di Giannantonio made it past Bagnaia and Bastianini dropped back to ninth spot.

That left Brad Binder and Diogo Moreira, who racily progressed eight and six spots from their grid positions respectively, to take seventh and eighth.

SPRINT

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	Retirement	Points
1	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	10	20'04.098			12
2	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	10	+0.578 20'04.676	0.578		9
3	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	10	+1.310 20'05.408	0.732		7
4	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	10	+1.793 20'05.891	0.483		6
5	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	10	+5.053 20'09.151	3.260		5
6	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	10	+8.330 20'12.428	3.277		4
7	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	10	+8.484 20'12.582	0.154		3
8	D. Moreira Team LCR	11	Honda	10	+9.001 20'13.099	0.517		2
9	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	10	+9.101 20'13.199	0.100		1
10	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	10	+9.545 20'13.643	0.444
11	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	10	+10.076 20'14.174	0.531
12	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	10	+12.250 20'16.348	2.174
13	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	10	+12.715 20'16.813	0.465
14	A. Fernandez Pramac Racing	47	Yamaha	10	+14.878 20'18.976	2.163
15	M. Viñales Tech 3	12	KTM	10	+1'42.843 21'46.941	1'27.965
16	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	10	+1'43.826 21'47.924	0.983
17	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	10	+1'45.065 21'49.163	1.239
18	I. Lecuona Gresini Racing	27	Ducati	10	+1'56.425 22'00.523	11.360
dnf	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	2	+8 Laps 5'30.706	8 Laps	Retirement
dnf	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	2	+8 Laps 4'18.066		Retirement
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