Dre’s Race Review: MotoGP’s 2024 Malaysian Grand Prix

“Winning The War But Not The Battle.” 

Welcome back to Dre’s Race Review. It’s weird to be processing this weekend. As I’ve already written about earlier, it’s hard not to feel somewhat sombre given the tragic events that have happened in Valencia, such a staple part of the Motorsport world, but as ever, the show must go on, and we’re in the entertainment business. Malaysia had another horrible scare, and what could be the final twist in the tale of what’s been a strange, peaky Championship fight. Allow me to explain.

2024 (Colourised)

If you ever wanted a microcosm of the 2024 World Championship and the state of current Motorcycle racing, Saturday was the day. I don’t normally talk about Qualifying here in the DRR unless it’s in passing, but Sepang’s time trials warranted more than a passing mention. It was the two best current riders in the world at the absolute peak of their powers. Jorge Martin set a ridiculous opening salvo of 1:56.5. For perspective, that was nearly a second faster than last year’s lap record. It’s quicker than the unofficial testing times on a track still fresh of rubber. The fastest ever two-wheeled lap of Sepang, and it was half a second quicker than Bagnaia’s initial effort. It was ridiculous and we all thought it was a walk-off. Surely Pecco couldn’t find half a second?

Bagnaia takes his final run and does a 1:56.3. Two tenths quicker, the bike fighting every urge to fly into the gravel trap and the World Champion at the peak of his powers. It was 1.1 seconds faster than the previous lap record. Martin had no reply, nearly tucking the front in trying on his final attempt. It was astonishing and one of the highlights of the MotoGP season so far. An all-timer one-lap attempt and a brilliant exhib-

Francesco Bagnaia crashes during the Sprint and the title fight is essentially over. 

It was swift, and it was brutal. Jorge Martin took the holeshot into Turn 1 like he so often has this season, he pulled a half-second lead and was just looking to get away, and Pecco hit the Turn 9 bump of poor judgment. It’s always been a bastard of a corner. 15 times a rider crashed there last year. 12 in 2022. It’s right on the apex and if you hit it wrong, you will tuck the front and crash. And that’s what Pecco did here. 

It will likely be the defining crash of the 2024 Championship. Jorge Martin won his seventh Sprint of the year and extended his lead to 29 points, with just 49 left on the board. Martin only had to follow Bagnaia home after the Sprint in Thailand, now he’s got breathing room. Essentially, keep it upright and it’s yours.

The Grand Prix had a dramatic start. A horror crash at the Turn 2 bottleneck between the factory KTM’s and Fabio Quartararo. Jack Miller needed medical treatment on the track with an early Red Flag, but thankfully he was okay and somehow, avoided serious injury. 

When we got going again, we got the best early skirmish of the season. It was aggressive, it was back and forth and it was brutal. Martin shutting the door around the outside of Pecco at the final corner. Pecco came back and counter-attacked every time Martin tried an aggressive overtake of his own to retake the lead. It was brilliant racing. 

For four laps.

By the time we got to lap 5, Bagnaia ripped out a one-second lead on his softer front tyre compared to Martin’s medium, and the race was over. Martin looked like he was settling for second, until a late push at the end. The gap went down from 2.2 to 1.4 seconds until a wide run at Turn 9 (Of poor judgement), was enough to end that pipe dream.

And want more reasons to feel like the vibes are off this season? Bagnaia just made history. He joins Giacomo Agostini, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner and Marc Marquez as just the sixth man in history to win 10 Grand Prix in the same season. It’s all-timer status once again, but I have to be that guy and ask the question – Is it an all-time great season if you didn’t win the Championship? If it ends with losing the #1 plate, the focus will be on his deficit on Saturdays. -48 points compared to Martin in the Sprint is crippling. And as much as it’s easy to rag on the Sprint, you have to play the format as well as the man.

So yeah, 10 wins is great. Congratulations, you’re the 2016 Golden State Warriors. And it doesn’t take a whole load of googling to figure out what happened to them.

The Lightning Round

Since the last post on here, it looks like the MotoGP season will finish in Barcelona on November 17th, pending confirmation from Dorna. A decent alternative for a finale and props to everyone involved for being able to put a Grand Prix on in just 14 days, I can’t imagine how difficult that is logistically for everyone involved. 

An emotional, powerful win for the Valencia-based Aspar Team as David Alonso won his 13th race of his incredible Moto3 season. Great to see Izan Guevara (Remember him?), follow it up with a podium in Moto2, and unlucky we didn’t get Jake Dixon there too if it wasn’t for a wrong Dashboard message telling him he was one lap short. Awful luck. If you haven’t already, please hit up Aspar’s fundraiser and help support the victims of the flooding, we’ll be donating on behalf of everyone at Motorsport101.

Please, Dorna… when we don’t know the condition of an injured rider, we do not need multiple replays of the crash, and we do not need helicopter and drone shots of the sheet around them while we as an audience fear the worst. It is disappointing you still haven’t learned anything from the brutality of Pecco Bagnaia’s Catalan crash from 2023. It is an unnecessary, horrible TV direction. A little bit of sensitivity goes a long way. Delighted that Miller has since been declared fit. 

Dre’s Race Rating: 6/10 (Decent) – Weirdly, this is an AYKFM/10 start to a race, and the rest was a 3/10. Normally, it’s the other way around. I’ve got to be bluntly honest, as an audience, we need to demand better. This wasn’t one of the greatest MotoGP fights of all time. It wasn’t even the best race or battle of 2024 in my opinion. I loved Maverick’s furious COTA comeback, and the Bagania/Marquez fight to the line in Jerez. Weirdly, this has been marketed as a classic when it just… wasn’t for me. It was a fun skirmish but nothing more. We don’t need to compensate for a mediocre racing product right now. But it is what it is.

From everyone here at M101, our continued thoughts and prayers with the people of Valencia.