Pedrosa Wins Explosive Sepang Race, Rossi Penalised

Oct 25, 2015
3 min read

Dani Pedrosa won his second race of the season after a dominant display from pole position, but all eyes were on the deathmatch for third between Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez.

Rossi and Marquez have been the centre of attention all weekend after the Italian launched a verbal assault on the Spaniard on Thursday, accusing the Honda rider of aiding team-mate Jorge Lorenzo in Australia. Since then we've been eager to see how this fallout would progress in today's race. It's fair to say that it went thermonuclear.

Rossi got off the line well and ran with both Factory RC213Vs in the opening laps, whilst Lorenzo dropped behind both Duacti riders. The Spaniard cleared the GP15s by the fourth corner and began reeling in his team-mate. He made a move at turn one on the next lap stick and began his attack on the Honda duo.

Lorenzo capitalised on front grip issue for Marquez at turn four, with Rossi muscling his way through for the first time at the same corner on the following tour. Thus ensued a dogfight, a particularly aggressive one. The pair swapped positions over the next several laps, passing and countering each others every move. On a few occasions the pair were close to contact, both making a point of showing each who's boss.

Rossi knew that this squabbling was allowing his team-mate to bolt and take precious championship points away from him, so gesticulated to Marc to tag onto the back of him exiting turn eight. He was having none of it and resumed his attack. With Lorenzo extending the gap all the time, Rossi finally grew tired of Marquez's behaviour and took matters into his own hands.

Rossi squeezed him out of room through turn fourteen, and Marquez crashed out. Rossi's knee came out during the incident, some construing it as a deliberate kick. Valentino keeps his third place finish but was handed three penalty points post-race and will start from the back of the grid in Valencia.

Lorenzo's second place means he closes the gap in the standings to his team-mate to seven points, and his job has been made a lot easier by race direction's decision.

Bradley Smith recovered from a difficult start to the weekend to beat Cal Crutchlow for top Satellite honours. The Tech 3 rider got passed Crutchlow at the final corner when he made a mistake and gapped him by over two seconds. Smith crossed the line fourth.

Andrea Dovizioso was involved in that scrap, but crashed out after Crutchlow looked to have made slight contact with one of the GP15's wings going through turn six on lap eleven. This compounded a miserable day for the Factory team after Iannone dropped out in the opening laps with a mechanical problem.

Danilo Petrucci was left to pick up Ducati's pride and did so brilliantly, taking his best dry result of his MotoGP career in sixth after starting down in thirteenth. Team-mate Yonny Hernandez finished twelfth.

Both Suzuki riders scrapped over seventh place, with Aleix Espargaro coming out the victor in that particular battle. Maverick Vinales was eight, Pol Espargaro ninth and Stefan Bradl a fine tenth.

Hector Barbera recovered from a grid penalty to finish thirteenth and as top Open class rider. The Avintia Ducati rider crashed during morning warm up and his bike slid into the side of Pol Espargaro. He was handed a penalty point, his fourth, demoting him to last place. Fortunately for him Open class rival Loris Baz crashed out of the race in the opening laps, giving Barbera a six-point lead heading into the finale in Valencia.

Alvaro Bautista rounded out the points scorers in fifteenth, with Ant West completing the field.

2015 Malaysian Grand Prix – Result

1st Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team

2nd Jorge Lorenzo, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP

3rd Valentino Rossi, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP

4th Bradley Smith, Monster Yamaha Tech 3

5th Cal Crutchlow, LCR Honda

6th Danilo Petrucci, Octo Pramac Racing Ducati

7th Aleix Espargaro, Suzuki Team Ecstar

8th Maverick Vinales, Suzuki Team Ecstar

9th Pol Espargaro, Monster Yamaha Tech 3

10 Stefan Bradl, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini