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Jack Miller apologized to his team after an angry pitlane outburst at the Sepang MotoGP Sprint, where a miscommunication with crew chief Giacomo Guidotti left his bike unprepared for a pit stop. Miller said he decided to pit after seeing raindrops on his visor while running around 17th or 18th, then shouted, “We look like wankers,” when he arrived and found his second Yamaha M1 still on its stand and not fitted with wet-weather tyres. He later said the rain never became heavy enough to justify switching to wet tyres, and that once he realized the tyres had not even been changed, the race was effectively over.

The delay forced Miller to retire from the sprint. Early rain brought out the white flag on lap two, and later bike changes left riders nearly a lap down. Pramac team director Gino Borsoi said both the rider and the team shared blame for the incident, and said the second bike would have been ready one lap later.

Fans criticized Pramac for what they called an unprofessional rookie mistake. In the race result, Augusto Fernandez finished 14th in place of injured Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Pecco Bagnaia said Sepang had been a difficult weekend, after finishing 12th in Friday practice, missing direct access to Q2 and crashing on his time-attack run in Qualifying 1. He said he was about eight tenths off in the middle sectors, called that deficit “ridiculous,” and added that his Ducati only worked when it was straight, while the front tucked and he ran wide in the faster flowing sections. Bagnaia also said he was 1.5 seconds slower than his own all-time qualifying record from last year, that his feeling on the bike was completely different from the February tests, and that the track conditions were essentially unchanged despite earlier plans to resurface the circuit.

In Saturday’s sprint, Bagnaia said the intermittent rain was lucky for him. He came through Q1 and qualified 10th, then finished sixth, 8.3 seconds behind the winner. Even so, he said the result was better than his recent finishes but still below what he had expected going into the weekend. He added that his Ducati’s rear tire wear became severe after just three laps, with data showing the rear sliding too much in corners compared with the other Ducati riders, which made it hard to keep pace on a track with many lean angles.

Jorge Martin withdrew from the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend at Sepang after trying to ride on Friday, six days after breaking his wrist in Australia, and the move ended his chances of scoring points in Malaysia. Before the weekend, the 2024 champion was 10 points behind championship leader Marc Marquez, with 111 points left in the title fight, and Marquez said he could leave Malaysia with a 47-point lead if he won both races.

Alex Marquez took pole position for both the Malaysian Grand Prix and the sprint at Sepang with a lap of 1 minute, 56.493 seconds, 0.070 seconds faster than Marc Marquez. In the rain-affected 10-lap sprint, Pedro Acosta won with Marc Marquez second, 0.578 seconds back, and Marco Bezzecchi third. Ai Ogura finished fourth, Fabio Di Giannantonio fifth and Francesco Bagnaia sixth.

The sprint tightened the championship battle further for the weekend, but Marc Marquez still left Sepang with the upper hand. He extended his lead over Martin to 19 points, with Marc Marquez on 374 points and Martin on 355, and six riders remained mathematically alive in the championship chase after Sepang.

Marc Marquez set the early pace at Sepang, topping opening practice with a 1:58.912 lap and standing alone in the 1:58 range. Marco Bezzecchi and Pedro Acosta tied for second, 0.474 seconds back, with Enea Bastianini fourth and Brad Binder fifth. Jorge Martin returned to action six days after fracturing his wrist at Phillip Island, completed 12 laps in FP1 and finished 20th before later withdrawing from the Sepang MotoGP weekend because of the injury. Raul Fernandez was also declared unfit during FP1 and returned to Spain for treatment.

Marc Marquez carried that form into Friday practice, where he led with a 1:57.000 lap. Alex Marquez followed 0.109 seconds behind in second, ahead of Ai Ogura, Pedro Acosta and Fabio Di Giannantonio. Bezzecchi, Bastianini, Maverick Vinales, Franco Morbidelli and Joan Mir also secured direct passage to Q2.

In qualifying, Alex Marquez claimed pole position for both the Malaysian Grand Prix and the sprint with a 1m56.493s lap, beating Marc Marquez by 0.070 seconds. Acosta completed the front row, while Ogura and Bezzecchi rounded out the top five.

Marc Marquez set the pace at Sepang on Friday, even after a crash in practice, as he clocked a 1:57.000 lap to top the session and earn a direct Q2 spot. Alex Marquez was second and Ai Ogura third, while Marco Bezzecchi, Enea Bastianini, Maverick Viñales, Franco Morbidelli, Joan Mir, Pedro Acosta and Fabio Di Giannantonio filled out the top 10 and also moved straight into Q2. Francesco Bagnaia and Johann Zarco missed out after late crashes and were headed to Q1, and Jorge Martin ended the session early, which would have left him in Q1 if he had continued.

Bastianini then led Saturday practice with a 1:58.516 lap, 0.288 seconds clear of Alex Marquez. Bezzecchi was third, Ogura fourth, Marc Marquez eighth and Bagnaia 10th.

In Friday’s opening practice, Marc Marquez had also led with a 1:58.912, ahead of Bezzecchi and Acosta, who were level on 1:59.386. Bastianini and Brad Binder rounded out the top five. Martin returned to action in FP1 six days after a non-displaced fracture of the distal radius and completed 12 laps, while Raul Fernandez was declared unfit and was set to return to Spain for treatment.