VOLUME ISSUE NOVEMBER , P69
BY NEIL MORRISON
PHOTOGRAPHY GOLD & GOOSE
H
ow do you like your rac-
ing: short and scrappy? Or
long and drawn out? The
Malaysian Grand Prix offered
up plenty of both on a week
-
end when title tensions almost
peaked and Pecco Bagnaia
(Lenovo Ducati) and Jorge Mar
-
tin (Pramac Ducati) put every-
thing on the line to serve up a
modern classic—for three laps
at least.
For the third straight season,
the 2024 MotoGP title fight
will go down to the final round
thanks to the spectacular feats
of the championship's leading
men. The Sepang International
Circuit has been the scene of
a memorable meltdown from
a title assailant in the not-too-
distant past. And for a day,
it appeared Bagnaia was on
course to do the same after fall
-
ing from second in Saturday's
Sprint when chasing Martin
down, which left him a colossal
29 points in arrears.
Yet the fact his rival faced his
first match point of the year on
Sunday appeared to spur him
on, as he went on to dominate
three quarters of Sunday's re
-
started outing, turning the final
16 laps into a near joyless pro-
cession, claiming an astonish-
ing 10th premier-class triumph
of the year in the process—a
feat only Agostini, Doohan,
Rossi, Stoner and Marquez have
achieved.
