2018 MotoGP champion Marc Marquez of Honda took his ninth win of the season in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang International Circuit. The win though was handed to him after long-time leader Yamaha's Valentino Rossi crashed. Finishing on the podium were Suzuki's Alex Rins 1.8s behind Marquez, while Tech3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco finished third 2.4s off the race leader, having started the race on pole. Marquez, meanwhile, started sixth, having been handed a six-place drop for impeding Andrea Iannone in qualifying, after securing his 80th career pole position.
Starting second on the grid, Rossi passed pole-sitter Zarco to take the lead at Turn 1 and went on to lead with a margin of one second. Marquez meanwhile, started to attack the others riders moving up to P2 behind Rossi by Lap 5. Rossi was placed well into the lead for the first half of the race, but Marquez slowly started to eat into Rossi's space at 0.10s per lap. With three laps to go out of 20, Marquez was on the Yamaha's riders tail with a gap of just 0.6s when Rossi suffered a low-speed crash on the first corner, promoting the Honda rider in the lead.
(Valentino Rossi crashed with just 3 laps to go with Marquez at P2)
Spectators were hoping a repetition of a battle between the riders, similar to the 2015 Malaysian GP at Sepang, but Rossi dropped all the way to 18th, as the other riders passed him. Marquez gained a four second lead in the final laps and eventually crossed the chequered flag bagging the constructors' title for team Honda.
Rins passed Zarco on the final lap at Turn 4 to take second in a career best finish, while the Tech3 rider took his first podium since May this year.
Yamaha's Maverick Vinales finished fourth, after a brilliant race, having started 11th on the grid, while Honda's Dani Pedrosa finished fifth, in what an impressive result amidst a difficult season this year. Finishing sixth was Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso after climbing up to fourth in the early stages. Teammate Alvaro Bautista finished about 4s behind Dovi taking seventh, while Pramac Ducati riders Jack Miller and Danilo Petrucci took P8 and P9 respectively.
(This was Alex Rins' career best finish yet taking P2 behind Marquez)
Tech3 Yamaha's rookie rider Hafizh Syahrin finished at P10 having started 23rd on the grid, but moved up to 12th on the opening lap. Taking the last points were Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro at P11, ahead of Franco Morbidelli of Marc VDS Honda, LCR Honda's stand-in Stefan Bradl and LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami. Finishing 15th was KTM's Bradley Smith.
With respect to retirements, Suzuki's Andrea Iannone crashed on the first lap at Turn 15 behind Marquez, followed by Jorge Lorenzo's replacement Michele Pirro, KTM's Pol Espargaro and Nieto Ducati's Karel Abraham.
