Marc Marquez set the fastest time in Sunday morning's MotoGP warm-up at Sepang, according to Crash.net, despite staying in the pits until the ten-minute session was half gone. The championship leader, who finished second to Pedro Acosta in Saturday's Sprint, then moved straight to the top of the timesheets and ended the session roughly half a second clear of his brother Alex Marquez.
Alex Marquez, who took pole but crashed out of the lead in the early Sprint, was marginally quicker than KTM's Acosta, the Saturday winner. Every rider ran the soft rear tyre, and Franco Morbidelli was the only rider to fall, per Crash.net.
Why it matters
Marc Marquez begins the Malaysian Grand Prix with a 19-point advantage over Jorge Martin, who is not riding this weekend. A win on Sunday would stretch that gap to 47 points, more than doubling his cushion with the season running down. Martin's absence removes the one rider closest to him in the standings from the equation entirely.
Martin withdraws a week after Phillip Island injury
Martin pulled out after attempting to race just seven days after breaking a bone in his wrist at Phillip Island, motogp.com reported. The Aprilia rider has since conceded that the title is effectively gone, telling The Race that the championship is "already lost" from his position.
His withdrawal came after fellow Aprilia rider Raul Fernandez also stepped aside, following continued trouble with a finger injury during Friday practice. Aprilia's remaining hopes at Sepang rest with Marco Bezzecchi and Ai Ogura, who will be trying to keep the factory in touch in both the riders' and manufacturers' standings.
Elsewhere on the grid, Toprak Razgatlioglu is out for the rest of the year after shoulder surgery and has been replaced at Pramac by Yamaha test rider Augusto Fernandez. Honda's Luca Marini and Joan Mir are both back in action: Marini sat out Phillip Island with a virus, while Mir has been receiving treatment for fatigue problems dating back to Misano.
What Sepang form suggests
Marc Marquez arrives off a runner-up finish in a damp Sprint on Saturday, behind Acosta. According to Motorsport.com, he had already signalled his intention to push hard at Sepang after a dominant Friday, and Sunday morning's warm-up did nothing to contradict that.
Alex Marquez will be chasing redemption from pole after throwing away the Sprint lead, while Ducati's recent record at the circuit is strong. Pecco Bagnaia won the Sprint at Sepang last year and Alex Marquez took the Grand Prix, a race in which the best Aprilia was Ogura down in tenth. At this year's pre-season test at the track, Bezzecchi was the only Aprilia inside an all-Ducati top six, with Alex Marquez quickest and Marc fourth behind Fabio di Giannantonio.
The warm-up order alone does not settle a race, and Sepang's heat and the threat of afternoon weather have often reshuffled the picture. But the shape of the weekend is clear: the man with the points lead has pace, and his closest challenger is watching from home.
The Malaysian Grand Prix starts later on Sunday, with Marc Marquez's margin over Martin at the flag the number to watch.
