struggled to break into the top
five. However, at the start of lap
18, Ogura tried to press home his
advantage with a move on Arbo-
lino only for disaster to strike—the
Japanese rider tucking the front
and crashing out.
Arbolino went on to win by 11
seconds but the rider who was
happiest with his result most like-
ly would have been Fernandez,
who inherited fourth position and
a 13-point boost. The Spaniard
crashed out last Sunday at Phillip
Island but, with Ogura scoring
a zero this time, he is now back
on top of the riders' standings by
9.5 points with just the Valencia
GP final to come in a fortnight.
Third in Malaysia went to Briton
Jake Dixon (Inde GasGas Aspar
ROUND 19 / OCTOBER 21-23, 2022
SEPANG INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT / SEPANG, MALAYSIA
P70
MOTOGP I FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
QUARTARARO
BREAKS DIGIT
It wasn't looking good for Fabio
Quartararo on Saturday. A fast crash
in FP4 broke the middle finger of his
left hand. He was understandably
subdued, qualifying 12th, giving him
a minor mountain to climb. But the
Frenchman rode like a champion on
Sunday. And he claimed the injury
wasn't such a hinderance on the
bike, except when engaging the
holeshot device. "It was different
because riding the bike was not the
problem," he said after scoring third.
"It's a track where you use a lot the
holeshot device and is especially on
this hand. But with the medicine, the
adrenaline I had today, it was not a
problem."
SAFETY COMMISSION
FEEDBACK
The Moto2 incident from the Aus-
tralian GP, where a red flag was
not show despite Jorge Navarro
sitting trackside for two laps with
a broken femur, was a topic of
conversation at Friday's Safety
Commission. There, Race Direc-
tion and Dorna apologized for not
showing the red flag and admit-
ted their fault. "They were very,
very sorry," said Aleix Espargaro
of the meeting. "They accepted
they made a mistake. From Race
Direction to everybody in Dorna,
[they] accepted that it was more
than two laps, completely unac-
ceptable, so hopefully we can
learn from this."
Briefly...
The yellow and black
menace was coming for
Fabio Quartararo, but Marco
Bezzecchi couldn't sustain
the pace and finished
fourth, ensuring the title
race rolls on to Valencia.
