Sepang, Malaysia – Dani Pedrosa took his 51st Grand Prix win with a brilliant ride, leading from flag to flag in hot and humid conditions, but one that is likely to be forgotten as the MotoGP world focuses on the clash between championship leader Valentino Rossi and defending title-holder Marc Marquez.
The Binder brothers from Potchefstroom once more suffered mixed fortunes as Brad missed out on a maiden Grand Prix win by just 0.089s while younger brother Darryn crashed out again – this time on lap three.
MOTOGP
Pole man Pedrosa pulled a superb start and led into Turn 1 from his factory Honda team-mate Marquez and Rossi. Lorenzo, starting from fourth, dropped back to sixth in the first corner but recovered to put an incredible double pass on the Ducati Team GP15’s of Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone.
He then set his sights on the man he trailed by 11 points in the standings before the race began, catching Rossi and passing him into Turn 1 at the start of lap two.
A lap later Marquez ran wide at Turn 15, allowing Lorenzo into second, and suddenly Marquez was one-on-one with the most experienced rider in the history of Grand Prix racing, who had earlier accused him of helping Lorenzo to win the title.
What followed was the battle of the season, as the two riders passed and re-passed each other at almost every corner, allowing the two men at the front to disappear into the distance. While Pedrosa was managing the gap at the front beautifully, Lorenzo had opened up a lead of 2.7s over Marquez in third by lap seven.
Then came one of the most sensational moments of the year, as Rossi once again passed Marquez for third in Turn 10 on lap seven. Marquez immediately fought back through Turns 11 and 12 with Rossi then responding in Turn 13 before appearing to run Marquez wide on the exit of Turn 14 as the two seemed to bang fairings, causing Marquez to crash out.
While all of this was going on Lorenzo in second had managed to open up a 5.6s gap to Rossi which, try as he might, Rossi could close down. After all the early drama, the rest of the race seemed almost an anti-climax.
Pedrosa had managed his tyres and pace perfectly, extending his advantage on almost every lap. He went on to take his second win of the season by nearly four seconds from Lorenzo, who made it four podiums in a row and 11 for the season by finishing second. Rossi came home third, a further 10 seconds behind Lorenzo.
Yamaha Tech 3’s Bradley Smith pulled off a superb result, crossing the line fourth after qualifying ninth. In the early stages he and Cal Crutchlow on the LCR Honda put up a great dice for honour of leading satellite rider until Crutchlow ran wide at Turn 15 with nine laps to go and lost touch with the Yamaha, eventually finishing almost five seconds adrift – his best result since his fourth at the Catalan Grand Prix.
Aleix Espargaro won the battle of the Suzukis as he beat rookie team-mate Maverick Vinales to seventh by little more than a tenth of a second. It was Espargaro’s 11th top 10 finish of the season, while Vinales followed up his career best result of sixth at Phillip Island with seventh.
Pol Espargaro crossed the line ninth despite severe neck pain after a crash during the morning’s warm-up session caused by Hector Barbera, being passed fit to ride by the medics moments before lining up on the grid. Stefan Bradl completed the top 10, his best result since he made his debut for the Aprilia Racing Team at Indianapolis.
PENALTY
Race Direction reviewed the Rossi/Marquez incident after the race and slapped Rossi with three penalty points, which means he will have to start the final race of the season at from the back of the grid.
Rossi will go to Valencia with a lead of only seven points over Lorenzo in the premier-class standings, and the penalty practically guarantees his team-mate the 2015 title. Nevertheless, at 36 Rossi is by far the oldest rider on the grid and is all too aware that this will be in all probability his last chance to take a 10th world title; he will literally have it all to play for on 8 November.
MOTO2
Johann Zarco timed his charge perfectly to take his eighth victory and 14th podium of the season after a race-long duel with Thomas Luthi, with the top 11 finishers all riding Kalex machines.
The newly crown world champion judged the race to perfection, denying Luthi his second win of the season on the last lap by just 0.598s, with Jonas Folger completing the podium, a further nine seconds back.
Luthi started from pole and led the way into Turn 1, although Zarco made his first move on the Swiss rider at Turn 4. Luthi re-took the lead on the last corner of lap one and set about creating a gap at the front, with Zarco in hot pursuit.
These two opened up a lead over the rest and Luthi appeared to be managing the gap perfectly, by lap 11 it was up to a second. Zarco fought back to reduce this to 0.5s with 7 laps remaining, but Luthi got the hurry up signal from his pit board and responded, so the gap was back up to a second with four laps left.
Just when it looked like Luthi had the race in the bag, Zarco attacked. The gap was down to 0.2s when the two riders crossed the line to start the final lap.
Zarco appeared to have much better edge grip on his tyres; he made his move for the lead at Turn 2 and went on to take his 10th career GP victory by more than half a second. Luthi's second was his third podium of the season and saw him leapfrog Jonas Folger into fifth in the standings.
Folger had been involved in a battle for third with Alex Rins before the latter crashed out at Turn 9 on lap 10, which left Folger with a lonely ride to third for his fourth podium of 2015.
Takaaki Nakagami made it back-to-back fourth places with Lorenzo Baldassarri following up his first podium at Phillip Island with fifth.
Luis Salom came on strong late on in the race to cross the line sixth, just four tenths ahead of Sandro Cortese in seventh.
Local rider Hafizh Syahrin rode brilliantly from 18th on the grid to finish eighth, with Simone Corsi and Xavier Simeon completing the top 10.
Sam Lowes (Speed Up) was running seventh when he appeared to have issues, and started dropping down the order like a stone, before recovering towards the end, eventually crossed the line 13th.
MOTO3
KTM Star Miguel Oliveira took his fifth win of the season in a dramatic Moto3 race as title rival Danny Kent came home seventh.
Oliveira pulled off a sensational last-lap victory to ensure that the 2015 Moto3 title battle would go down to the wire, while championship leader Danny Kent ran wide at the last corner and crossed the line seventh, which meant that he failed to clinch the title by just two points, but would take a 24 point lead to the final race at Valencia.
Oliveira’s works KTM team-mate Brad Binder and Honda privateer Jorge Navarro completed the podium.
Starting from third, Oliveira was involved in an excellent battle for the lead with Binder, Navarro, Niccolo Antonelli (Honda), Romano Fenati (KTM), Francesco Bagnaia (Mahindra) and Jakub Kornfeil (KTM).
Kent on the other hand, after his three-place grid penalty relegated him to ninth at the start, dropped down to 16th in the opening laps and looked to be struggling. Slowly but surely, however, and despite a number of riders crashing in front of him – including his two team-mates Hiroki Ono and Efren Vazquez - Kent started to make his way through the field and by lap nine he was on the back wheel of Antonelli in seventh.
As the laps ticked down, the lead changed repeatedly due to the slipstream effect down Sepang’s two long straights. Kent knew that, even if Oliviera won, he had only to finish fifth to become the first British world champion since Barry Sheene won the 500cc title in 1977.
With three laps to go, Bagnaia crashed out and Kent was up to sixth. On the second last lap Kent made a move on Antonelli to secure fifth - and the title was in the bag.
Or was it? As they started the final lap, Kent tried to pass Fenati in Turn 1, leaving the door open for Antonelli to dive through and re-take the crucial fifth place.
Kent fought back in Turn 4, but Antonelli responded at Turn 9. It was all going to come down to the final two straights and the infamous Turn 15.
Which was when Oliveira timed it perfectly to make his move for the race win, passing team-mate Binder in the very last corner. Moments later Kent tried to do the same to Antonelli, only to run wide and let Kornfeil through as well, eventually coming home seventh.
Binder rode superbly to claim his fourth podium of the year, ahead of Navarro who was on the podium for the third time in four races. Antonelli made it back-to-back fourth places, while Romano Fenati pulled off his best result since Aragon in fifth.
Kornfeil crossed the line sixth at his team’s home Grand Prix, while Kent missed out on his third chance this season to nail the title. It’s a measure of how close Moto3 racing is that Kent, in seventh, finished just 0.59s behind the winner.
Four seconds later, Enea Bastianini led home an all-Honda chasing group, with Alexis Masbou and John McPhee completing the top 10.