Pecco rakes up seventh season win with Malaysian GP victory

SEPANG: Ducati Lenovo Team rider Francesco Bagnaia clinched his seventh win this season after making the most of a strong start to win the 2022 Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) here, today.

Bagnaia, better known as 'Pecco', extended his lead in this season's MotoGP riders' championship to 23 points after fighting his way from the third row of the starting grid in ninth place, ending the race with a time of 40 minutes and 14.332 seconds.

He finished 0.270s ahead of second-placed fellow Italian Enea Bastianini of Gresini Racing MotoGP, while reigning world champion Fabio Quartararo of Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP was third with a time of 40:17.105s.

As the season heads to a close with the final race in Valencia, Spain in two weeks' time, Bagnaia only needs to finish the race at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in at least 13th place to secure his maiden MotoGP championship.

"First of all, I want to say that I did the best start of my life because it was perfect, and (at first turn) I took some risk to enter the front (riders). Today we (team) did a really good job in terms of the championship and also it is my seventh win of the season, I'm very happy," he said after the race.

In the 2019 Malaysian GP, Bagnaia could only manage a 12th-place finish, a year after he came in third in Sepang when he won the 2018 Moto2 championship.

Quartararo, currently second in the riders' championship standings, meanwhile, expressed delight over his first podium finish since being runner-up at the Austrian GP last August.

The 23-year-old French rider started behind Bagnaia in 12th place but managed to power into the front group early in the race.

"I gave my maximum today, I couldn't do any better but I'm proud of myself because they (rivals) had a good day so did we and at the end, I know where I was losing - exactly the time.

"I feel like I'm riding really well....one of the best of the season, especially in the first lap so I am feeling super happy and at least we bring it (title fight) to Valencia even if the chances are super small, we did bring it to Valencia," he said.

Sixth-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez of Repsol Honda Team could only manage a seventh place finish with a time of 40:28.636s while Prima Pramac Racing's Jorge Martin of Spain, who started the race in pole position, crashed out of the race.

The Malaysian GP returned this year after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

-- BERNAMA