Dani Pedrosa on top in Malaysian Grand Prix

Can anyone stop rookie sensation Marc Márquez from wrapping up the 2013 FIM MotoGP World Championship, as the season reaches its final stages? Only his experienced Spanish compatriots still have the chance, with Jorge Lorenzo closer than Dani Pedrosa.

The Aragón race had seen Márquez take a sixth win of the season, but with his unlucky Repsol Honda team-mate, Pedrosa, failing to finish. The cause of Dani’s crash had been just a brush between the pair of them, with a cable for the traction control system affected by the contact. Márquez, however, had been judged responsible for the incident, and as a result he had been given a third penalty point on his GP racing licence. If he ‘earns’ a fourth, the penalty will be to get sent to the back of the grid at the next race. Meanwhile, Honda were docked 25 points from their constructors’ championship tally, for not having adequate safety cover for their traction control system.

Round fifteen of the series was the Malaysian Grand Prix, taking place at the lengthy Sepang circuit. Márquez and Lorenzo have both won GP races at the venue, with Pedrosa a three-time winner, and Valentino Rossi, Lorenzo’s works Yamaha team-mate, a six-time winner. Álvaro Bautistá and Hiroshi Aoyama have both won a couple of times. One of the challenges in 2012 had been the weather, and this would come into the equation again this time around.

Practice for the event would see to it that there would be one absentee for the race, with LCR Honda rider Stefan Bradl sustaining a fractured ankle in his crash, the German rider needing to go for surgery. In qualifying the session was shortened due to the rain, with conditions still partially wet as the riders went out: turns six and seven were particularly affected. This had some impact on the final grid, with Rossi one of those to benefit. The Italian would start from second position, his best grid slot for three years.

Pole position went to Márquez, his eighth, whilst Pedrosa was riding on pain killers after his Aragón highside, and was in fifth. Yamaha men filled the positions between the two Repsol machines, and for Lorenzo, caught out at one point by the slippery track surface, that meant fourth. Rossi and Lorenzo were split by the third-placed Tech 3 team leader Cal Crutchlow, who was coping with pain in his right arm. The Honda-Yamaha lock-out was completed by Bautistá, sixth for Gresini Honda, and then Bradley Smith, for Tech 3 Yamaha.

Ducati riders took three of the next four places, with CRT rider Aleix Espargaró once again in amongst them. The red works bikes were eighth and eleventh, with Andrea Dovizioso ahead of Nicky Hayden. Aleix was ninth on the Aspar ART, with Pramac Ducati rider Andrea Iannone tenth. The final Desmosedici was that of recent Pramac recruit Yonny Hernández, in P16. In front of him were CRT runners Colin Edwards and Claudio Corti (both Forward Racing) then Héctor Barberá and Hiroshi Aoyama (both Avintia Blusens).

The final seven places were all CRT, with Power Electronics Aspar rider Randy de Puniet in P17, then Michael Laverty (Paul Bird Motorsport), Danilo Petrucci (Came IodaRacing Project), Luca Scassa (Cardion AB Motoracing), Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini), Lukáš Pešek (Came IodaRacing Project) and Damian Cudlin (Paul Bird Motorsport) in P23.

Conditions for the race were hot and dry, with a hint of cloud in the sky, and with the main contenders opting for the medium compound Bridgestone tyres over the hard. Rossi had suffered a warm-up session crash at turn two, but this didn’t stop him from riding in combative style from the start. Lorenzo, on the outside line for the looping right-handed turn one, got the lead away from Pedrosa in the first instance. Márquez was third, from Rossi, Bautistá, Smith and Crutchlow. Rossi looked to move up in the heavy-braking zone for turn one, second time through, getting on the inside of Márquez, but with the youngster fighting back through the second part of the long corner.

Behind the leading quintet, Crutchlow was quick to pass team-mate Smith for sixth, these two followed by Dovizioso, Hayden, Iannone and Espargaró. Further back, Edwards, Barberá and Laverty had all made jump starts, and would have to take a pitlane ride-through penalty, with Barberá being the first one to come in. Corti had initially been next in line behind Espargaró, but for some reason he dropped seven places early on.

Lorenzo led Pedrosa, Márquez and Rossi, who more than once fought off the attentions of Bautistá at turn one, with Crutchlow tagging on behind. With Dani on the attack behind leader Lorenzo at turn one, as the race wore on the gaps between Rossi and Bautistá and between Bautistá and Crutchlow began to extend. But the main interest was always going to be centred on the leading trio of Spaniards, and the first change came at turn fifteen, the left-hand Hairpin at the end of the long back straight, where Pedrosa passed Lorenzo on the brakes.

This led to an attack on Lorenzo from Márquez, who went past on the inside at turn one. The track immediately loops back to the left at turn two, the Pangkor Laut Chicane, and Jorge tried to fight back going in there. He was kept back in third place for the long right at turn three, but the Yamaha man went to the inside for the slower right at turn four, the Langkawai Curve, getting past again. There was more back and forth in turns ten and eleven, the right-handed Berjaya Tioman Corner and Kenjir Lake Corner, with Lorenzo prevailing again. Similarly, Marc went deep with his inside move at turn one, which let Jorge through yet again.

Meanwhile, Pedrosa had been able to pull out a 0.5s lead, which went out to 0.8s and beyond as his two main rivals fought it out. Márquez tried something else at turn fourteen, the right-handed Sunway Lagoon Corner, leading into the long Penang Straight. With a tighter line, he was able to get inside Lorenzo and push the Yamaha man wide on the exit, which successfully got him into second position. At this stage, Pedrosa was 1.4s clear, and at half-distance the margin was approaching 1.8s. From there the leading trio would become more spaced out, and the positions did not change further. Rossi had also lost ground and took a solitary fourth.

The order behind had seen Bautistá heading Crutchlow, Smith, Hayden, Iannone, Espargaró, Dovizioso and Hernández, then the main CRT group with Aoyama heading de Puniet, Corti, Petrucci, Scassa, Staring, Pešek, Cudlin and the ride-through men, Barberá, Edwards and Laverty. However, two of the Ducatis then faltered, with Iannone touring in and Hayden parking by the pit wall with a smoking machine. Cudlin and Pešek would also fail to reach the end, joined by Laverty when the Ulsterman crashed.

Crutchlow passed Bautistá for fifth, but the tight left at turn nine, with a climbing exit, saw the Honda man regain the spot with a pass on the inside. When Álvaro ran wide at turn one, the order was reversed once more, but with Cal finally losing out to a move on the inside at the turn fifteen Hairpin on the penultimate lap. Smith took a secure seventh, ahead of Dovizioso, Espargaró, Hernández and Aoyama, the latter pair with their best results of the year so far. Then it was de Puniet from Corti, the recovering Barberá and Edwards, and finally Petrucci, Scassa and Staring.

Dani Pedrosa put the Aragón affair behind him in the best way, with his 25th premier class Grand Prix win. This put him equal with former 500cc star Kevin Schwantz and one ahead of Kevin’s main rival Wayne Rainey. But meanwhile Marc Márquez had done all he needed to do by finishing ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and extending his advantage in the world championship. Marc really only needs to finish in the top five for the remaining three races to be sure of his title. The next stop is Australia.

Standings after fifteen races: Márquez 298; Lorenzo 255; Pedrosa 244; Rossi 198; Crutchlow 166; Bautistá 136; Bradl 135; Dovizioso 120; Hayden 102; Smith 89 ·· CRT leader: Espargaró.
Honda 316; Yamaha 306; Ducati 131; ART 85; FTR-Kawasaki 53; Ioda Suter-BMW 23; PBM-ART 3; FTR-Honda 2.