#MalaysianGP
Pecco falls in the sprint but dominates the Race. The World Championship titles is still within reach.
A weekend full of twists and turns. Pecco’s fall in the Sprint Race, Sunday’s race interrupted by a red flag, and Pecco‘s ultimate victory, dominating from the fourth lap onwards. The Malaysian Grand Prix, while moving our Suomy rider further away from the championship leader, still leaves the possibility of winning the world championship title open. Francesco, as has happened in the past, made a mistake during the Sprint Race, partly due to a bump in the middle of the turn. A trivial fall but one that resulted in a heavy 0 on the points table. Fortunately, during Sunday’s race, he demonstrated remarkable overall superiority. He dominated the race, stepping onto the top podium.
SPRINT RACE
A Sprint Race to forget for our Suomy Rider, Pecco. After securing pole position and setting a new absolute lap record, Bagnaia had a good start but was unable to maintain the lead. Pecco stayed close to the leader, Martín, in the early stages, but unfortunately, during the third lap at turn nine (where there is a slight dip in the middle of the turn), he slid out due to an excessive front-end closure. No serious consequences, but he was forced to retire.
RACE
Francesco Bagnaia and his Suomy S1-XR GP crossed the finish line first, winning the tenth Grand Prix of the season. The race was held over a reduced distance of 19 laps following a crash at turn two that involved several riders and led to the red flag being displayed.
Upon restart, Francesco was involved in a spectacular battle with the championship leader for the first position. However, in the fourth lap, the reigning world champion managed to pull ahead of his opponent. Pecco then maintained his lead over his rival until the checkered flag, becoming the sixth rider in the history of the premier class to achieve ten wins in a season.
At the conclusion of the nineteenth Grand Prix of the season, Bagnaia is second in the riders’ championship, trailing the leader by 24 points. What’s next? Carlos Ezpeleta speaks of a possible final round in Barcelona at the Montmeló Circuit – Catalunya from November 15 to 17.
“Unfortunately, on that lap I didn’t brake as hard to avoid reaching the limit, which forced me to lean a bit more. There’s a bump in that very spot and I ran over it, and the front tucked. We know how tricky turn nine is and that was the deciding factor for the crash. These things shouldn’t happen, but unfortunately, they do sometimes. This year, most of my mistakes came in the sprint races and in this regard, Jorge (Martín) has done a better job. Now it’s almost impossible to recover given the 29-point gap, but we’ll keep giving it all – as we always do – as long as we’re still mathematically in contention.”
Francesco Bagnaia – Sprint Race NC
“Our pace today was really competitive, as it often happened on Sunday this year. Jorge (Martín) did all he could to stay in front of me in the early stages, but I was feeling very comfortable aboard the bike and was able to be a lot more aggressive. The only problem is that our pace was stronger than our rivals and that surely didn’t play in our favour. We need to understand why we can’t perform as good in the sprint races: this is an area we need to work on for the future, but right now we must focus on the final event of the season and try to do our best. This is our tenth Sunday win of the season and, which proves how excellent of a job we’ve done this year.”
Francesco Bagnaia – Race 1th
World Standings P. 2
Next Round:
TBC
November 15-17th
Click the button below to find out all the images of the #SuomyCrew during the weekend in Malaysia.