Six things we learned at the MotoGP Malaysian GP

Marc Marquez’s absence notwithstanding, the Sepang weekend had echoes of the early part of the 2025 season. Alex Marquez was a fixture in the top two. The brothers from Cervera made their grip on the top two in the championship official. Francesco Bagnaia was up at the front. It almost felt like a ‘normal’ race.

Broadly reasonable rider behaviour and an emphasis on tyre conservation meant it wasn’t exactly an epic in terms of entertainment. But there was always a battle going on somewhere, and psychological intrigue lurked beneath the surface. Here are six things that stood out following the MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix weekend.

Second in the championship meant a heck of a lot to Alex Marquez

Trust us, Alex Marquez winning the ‘battle’ for second place in the world championship behind his all-conquering brother has not been a recipe for a frenzy of clicks this season. Partly because it looked inevitable once Alex had hoovered up so many top-two finishes early in the year. Partly because Bagnaia, the one man who should have made the task difficult for Alex, lost the plot, ensuring it really was a formality for the younger Marquez. And partly because – harsh though it is – Alex Marquez isn’t Marc.

Alex didn’t exactly do his part for generating hype around his quest for second place during the season. In a series where cojones and winning are all that matter, it’s not the done thing anyway. But it turns out that the runner-up spot was indeed weighing on the man himself – that much was evident after he sealed it with second in the sprint.

All the bottled-up emotions came out, with Marquez admitting to some serious nerves during the race and some tearful moments afterwards. Being part of a historic family 1-2 obviously heightened feelings, particularly with Marc back home recovering from an injury. The siblings join one of sport’s most elite clubs – surely someone at Liberty is already working on a media event with tennis’s Williams sisters…

With the pressure off on Sunday, Alex delivered an impressive ride to victory. And so we learned another minor fact about him – he can win MotoGP races outside of Spain! Seriously, though, two of his three wins this year – this one and Catalunya – have come at tracks where he is a known specialist. To challenge for titles across a schedule longer than the Milky Way, he’ll need to go to the next level at tracks where his form is less stellar.

Bagnaia’s ups and downs are keeping the MotoGP show going

Bagnaia’s season took yet another twist in Malaysia

Photo by: Asif Zubairi / Motorsport Network

With Marc having wrapped up the title in Japan, there was a danger that interest in the MotoGP season would fizzle out with five race weekends still to go and the champion on his sick bed. But Bagnaia’s mind-boggling flyaway tour came along at exactly the right moment – and still you can’t look away for fear of missing what happens next.

Scooping up all 37 points in Japan, propping up the field at the next two rounds and then returning to winning form in Malaysia? Even in the days before telemetry and data-crunching analysis on a grand scale, this would have been far-fetched. Now that information overload is a part of sport, massive and sudden performance swings in any direction are almost impossible – which is what makes Bagnaia’s travails so fascinating.

All the elements for engagement and intrigue are there. Asking us to believe that nobody across the Ducati or Bagnaia camps has an explanation is asking a lot. But as races tick by and the Bagnaia rollercoaster rides on, the idea seems more plausible. Either you believe they’re stumped, or you become more convinced that there’s something big that we’re not being told.

If he was consistently poor, most would by now ascribe it to a breakdown in Bagnaia’s personal performance and confidence. It would be unusual in professional sport, but not unheard of – golf has its share of examples. But the intermittent high peaks tend to rule out that theory. It’s a mystery not even ChatGPT has the answer to (yet).

As we head into the final two chapters of Bagnaia versus the GP25, MotoGP can be thankful that mystery sells well. It also lends juicy context to the Bagnaia versus Marco Bezzecchi battle for third in the championship, which would otherwise be of limited interest.

Pedro Acosta is starting to look like the full package

Acosta has developed as a rider over the Asian flyaway races

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Memories of a brace-faced teenager are still so fresh that it’s hard to banish them. But banish them we must – and not just because Acosta has looked outwardly so much more adult as his 22nd year has progressed. There’s a far more important reason – he is no longer operating the way a young rookie would.

In 2024, Acosta had unpolished speed and talent, but not a lot else. Which was totally OK for a rookie. But his sophomore year didn’t start very well, as he battled the bike and rumours abounded that he was trying to escape his factory KTM contract. Once the latter distraction was laid to rest a few races in, Acosta seemed to find a little more focus. The bike returned from the summer break more competitive, which seemed to give him another boost – although it also led to him pushing beyond the limit at times.

Then the one-year anniversary of his crashing out twice from pole position in Japan seemed to mark a shift towards a more adult, rounded and professional Acosta. Who knows what self-development books he has been reading, but he hasn’t been shy to speak about his newfound maturity on the flyways. And more to the point, he has backed up these words with his track performances.

Granted, the crashing hasn’t disappeared – though it was noticeable in Malaysia that he got his accidents out of the way in practice and they were all low-speed affairs. But twice on the Asia-Pacific swing, he dragged results out of a tyre-chewing RC16 in professorial style – first at Mandalika and now at Sepang.

His explanation of the latter ride – that he told the team to switch off certain rider aids and let him manage tyre wear in old-school fashion – also suggested he has now grown into a confident leader who will stick by his technical convictions and can boss a garage. This iteration of Acosta is terrifying in its potential.

Aprilia’s RS-GP doesn’t work at every track after all

Aprilia came undone at Sepang

Photo by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network

The MotoGP Aprilia used to be unbeatable at places like Silverstone and Barcelona, but pretty ordinary at most other tracks – particularly outside of Europe. Bezzecchi’s consistent form since Le Mans, not to mention Raul Fernandez’s win for Trackhouse in Australia, had convinced many that the RS-GP was now a fully-fledged all-rounder. It didn’t wipe the floor with everyone at the Circuit de Catalunya, so the crazy peaks were gone, but it was going to be a competitive bike everywhere… a bit like a certain machine from Bologna.

Er, not quite. Sepang put the brakes on the theory that Aprilia has usurped Ducati (let’s not get into GP24s and GP25s…) as the go-to bike for any given circuit. All of the riders struggled – and they claimed afterwards that they knew it was coming. The bike had not gelled with the track in the February test, after all. And sure enough, despite very different track conditions in October, the progress made in intervening months did not reflect at this venue.

Maybe Sepang just doesn’t like Aprilias. That winter test is where Jorge Martin’s catalogue of injury woes began, after all – and Fernandez also got injured then. But, as always in a marathon season, let’s keep perspective. The Noale marque would have taken three strong flyaways out of four before taking off for Japan, and if the factory is down to just one bogey circuit then that is worth celebrating.

Honda can now compete in the MotoGP power stakes

Honda tops the speed trap – a sign of progress

Photo by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network

As lap two of the Malaysian GP ended and lap three began, one of modern MotoGP’s more significant engineering moments unfolded. Fermin Aldeguer and the attacking Joan Mir exited the final hairpin side-by-side and began a drag race up the front straight.

Conventional wisdom said that a Ducati – even a GP24 – would easily outrun a Honda in such a contest. But it was Mir who tipped into the first corner ahead. And that might have made a suit or two in Bologna choke on their breakfast cappuccinos.

Both Japanese manufacturers, Honda and Yamaha, were battling for top speed at the start of the season. Rewind to the third round at Austin, where speed trap figures showed the Hondas averaging around 5km/h slower than Bezzecchi’s Aprilia, with most of the Ducatis somewhere in between. But Honda has been chipping away since then – and the Aldeguer moment graphically highlighted how it had moved towards the top of the charts.

For more scientific evidence that this was more than just a great corner exit, consider that Mir, taking an average of his best five speeds, was quickest through the trap during the race. He also clocked the outright top velocity at 333.3km/h – an honour shared, neatly enough, with Bezzecchi.

While power is always a topic to treat with caution, with many factors at play, there has been enough evidence in recent races to suggest that Honda is now right up there in that department.

Yamaha’s V4 has a long way to go

Yamaha’s V4 didn’t make gains in Malaysia compared to its Misano outing in September

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Over at the other Japanese MotoGP manufacturer, it is hard to find similar signs of encouragement. Most worrying is the fact that the new V4 project has shown no progress since its Misano debut over a month ago.

Sepang was the bike’s second outing in the hands of test rider Augusto Fernandez. Nobody expected it to be quick in Italy, given that it was still at the bottom of its development curve. But if you’re going to use steep development curves to explain performance, then you’ve also got to reckon with a significant step between two races several weeks apart.

Here are the numbers. At Misano, Fernandez qualified ahead of one rider, Somkiat Chantra. In Malaysia, he lined up last, behind not only Chantra but Aprilia and Ducati’s respective test riders, neither of whom raced at Misano.

In the San Marino race, disregarding riders who fell, Fernandez defeated only Chantra. He ended that contest 61.504s off winner Marc Marquez, but did serve a double long lap penalty for a jump start. In Malaysia, again leaving aside fallers, he came home last – closer to the winner at 47.060s but without any penalties.

The V4 engine also set the slowest representative race top speed on the five-lap average metric. His 325.3km/h mark did not compare favourably with the inline four, aboard which the frustrated Fabio Quartararo was clocked at 332.3km/h. To be charitable, the latter may be considered an outlier time in Yamaha terms, with Alex Rins and Miguel Oliveira’s examples only a couple of clicks faster than Fernandez.

Still, in a series where manufacturers fight for months to extract half a second, is there going to be movement up this development curve at all? Is the V4 a dud? Or is blistering potential being masked by the fact that the bike is still running in ‘safe mode’? You be the judge.

The 2025 MotoGP powers on back to Europe for a double-header finale

Photo by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network

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