Italian rider Enea Bastianini (Ducati) took victory this Sunday in the MotoGP race of the Malaysian Grand Prix, the eighteenth round of the motorcycle World Championship, on a day when Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) finished third. He maintained his lead over Spain’s Jorge Martín (Ducati), who finished fourth.

After a winless year, ‘Monster’ returns to the top of the podium Saturday’s sprint winner is at Sepang after a race in which he dominated from start to finish to lead Spaniard Alex Márquez (Ducati) and ‘Pecco’.

Thus, Bagnaia regains the advantage he lost when he was third behind Martín on Saturday and increases his advantage at the top of the championship with only two Grands Prix remaining. Now, 14 points of income from a resident of Madrid, The only person who can fight him for the title after the Italian title Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati) – sixth this market – has been mathematically eliminated.

There are still 74 points to distributeIf ‘Pecco’ manages to finish ahead of San Sebastián de los Reyes in the sprint race in Losail, he will be able to have his first ‘match ball’ in the long race of the Qatar Grand Prix next week.

At the first corner of the first lap, Bastianini took the lead, taking advantage of a longer than normal line ahead of Bagnaia and Martín, while the youngest of the Márquez family managed to get behind ‘The Beast’. Two rivals for the championship As the following group approached, a series of passes were made for the podium.

Positions were fixed to cover the midpoint of the race; Nothing was moving anymore and Bastianini Alex Marquez and completed the final podium finish at the Bagnaia Malaysia competition. Martín took fourth place, earning the title of best independent rider.

As for the rest of the Spaniards, Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) placed eleventh, while Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) Augusto Fernandez (KTM), Pol Espargaro (KTM), Iker Lecuona (Honda) and Alvaro Bautista (Ducati) took the places from thirteenth to seventeenth.

They couldn’t finish the test Aleix Espargaro (April), Raul Fernandez (April) nor Joan Mir (RepsolHonda). In a week’s time, the World Cup will return with the course’s penultimate event, the Qatar Grand Prix.