Bagnaia complicates life and will go through MotoGP Q1 in Sepang

Sepang.- The weekend in which he can be world champion, Bagnaia is making too many unforced errors that could cost him and Ducati dearly.

If on Friday it was his team that left him out of the group that provisionally had direct access to the second qualifying screen (Q2), on Saturday morning it was the rider from Turin who, at the key moment, fell apart with a drop in the throes of training.

Bagnaia, who at the time was part of the group of riders making the cut, was chasing Fabio Quartararo, his main rival for the title, when he suddenly lost the front end of his Desmosedici and fell. The #63, leader of the general points table with a margin of 14 over Quartararo, was left out of Q2 despite signing the same record as the tenth (Franco Morbidelli). It so happens that the Roman starred in an incident with Bagnaia, by hindering him in his first fast lap attempt, which after evaluating the stewards will cost him a double long lap penalty for this Sunday’s race.

In any case, the fastest was Jorge Martín, followed by Marco Bezzecchi and Maverick Viñales (third). Luca Marini (fourth) was placed as the third Ducati rider in the first four places, while Joan Mir finished fifth, three tenths from the head.

Enea Bastianini was the sixth, while Quartararo got the seventh and Alex Rins, the eighth. Aleix Espargaró the third element still in contention for the crown, finished ninth, just ahead of Morbidelli.

In those last frantic minutes, and that the four drops that began to fall still stirred a little more, none of the Honda pilots could qualify for Q2, a circumstance that holds a very lively brawl in Q1.

Marc Márquez, for his part, could not get past 16th place, also affected by the incident between Bagnaia and Morbidelli.

2022 Malaysian GP MotoGP FP3 Results (Sepang)

Cla	#	Pilot		Motorcycle	laps	Weather	Difference
1	89	Jorge Martin		Ducati	15	1’58,583
2	72	Marco Bezzecchi		Ducati	18	1’58.772	0.189
3	12	Maverick Viñales		Aprilia	15	1’58.796	0.213
4	10	Luca Marini		Ducati	17	1’58.806	0.223
5	36	Joan Mir		Suzuki	17	1’58.920	0.337
6	23	Enea Bastianini		Ducati	15	1’59.003	0.420
7	20	Fabio Quartararo		Yamaha	18	1’59,067	0.484
8	42	Alex Rins		Suzuki	18	1’59.126	0.543
9	41	Aleix Espargaró		April	16	1’59,155	0.572
10	21	Franco Morbidelli		Yamaha	15	1’59.167	0.584
see results