Malaysian Grand Prix - Sepang

[René]

Now there's a chance for someone else to win a race! Marc Marquez crashed heavily and will start from only 11th! Never count him out but a win looks less likely now.

Pole position for Fabio Quartararo so a good chance to finally win his first MotoGP race but Viñales looks also in good shape. Rossi in 6th and a descent qualy for Zarco on the LCR Honda in 9th.

[Jamie]

Fabio looks amazing here and I must admit a smile crept across my face when Marquez crashed as he was trying to put FQ off by slipstreaming him whenever he went out. Nothing strictly wrong with that, but it feels a bit underhand to me.
He’s hoping for Fabio’s first win.

[charleselan]

Marquez gets his comeuppance at last. How many times this season have we witnessed him following another quick guy in final qualifying and snatching pole position by using the rider in front as a marker. This time Marci Boy it didn't work, and it didn't end well.

Hopefully young Fabio will get that first win which has been on the cards for some races now.

Also hoping that Johan Zarco has a good run on the Honda following a good qualifying session. I was astonished to read today that if he doesn't get a ride next season he would prefer Moto2 to a test rider position, as he wishes to race. Maybe not the best move Johan.

[Deleted]

I switched across to the Moto GP coverage after the Rugby world cup final (fantastic result for the Springboks), and as a consequence was awake until stupid o'clock in the hope of seeing Vale pull off a rare victory.
I was really enjoying seeing him build a lead, as Marquez scrapped his way through the field, and then set about his persuit.
It was looking like Vale had a defendable lead as the laps ticked down, or that the two would be involved in some close racing for the last two or three laps if Marquez didn't run out of tyre life chasing Vale down.
So disappointed that it fizzled out with a mistake, and handed Marquez another win.
As Colin Edwards once said - "Vale may be the GOAT, but he can't be the greatest for all time", however now and again it looks like he just could be.

[chrisb]

Yes the Boks played some great rugby and were worthy winners,

the qualifying was pretty exciting in all categories but the day was saddened by a tragic accident in the Asia Cup, rest in peace Afridza

One of the many irritating things Marquez does is, as said above is this following around another rider, I know it is legal and helps him win at any cost but it really is a bit rich when his team criticise Iannone for doing the same thing, I do think Miller said it well when he said "Marquez, master tactician, today got bit on his arxe"

there were some great rides in qualifying but two Frenchman stole the limelight for me, Fabio's lap was just stunning and I really hope he can finish off the year with a win and Zarco, that is brilliant and I hope he gets a really good result tomorrow as well 
Thinking about what Marquez does made me think about top drivers and riders playing mind games with their competitors, Rossi is a past master at it as was Michael and Stirling, Senna as well, but it made me ask myself did Ascari or Fangio need to, did Jimmy ever bother or Jackie come to that, or Gilles and Ronnie, and those six are six of my favourite top ten, mmm not sure where I am going with that, but it is interesting 

[chrisb]

it just shows you just how good the Yamaha and Maverick are when they have a clear circuit ahead of them and how and what happens when you are behind the Ducati's and Honda's if you are on a Yamaha, aka Rossi, Fabio and Morbidelli. A brilliant ride by the Maverick and Zarco, but this level of aggressive riding is just not good, you don't overtake people nowadays you just barge past, irrespective of what happens to your opponent,

[Jamie]

I didn’t see the race Chris, was it a bit bump and bang?

[charleselan]

I haven't seen any of the "Fly Away races", just not that enthusiastic at present.

The bumping and banging has been going on for a while now and to me isn't racing no matter what some of the so called pundits claim; the exclamation "hard but fair" doesn't cut it for me in the slightest.

The real rot set in when Rossi smacked Sette Gibernau out of the way in a desperate lunge some years back, and plain got away with it. It was dirty and desperate, but the likes of Steve Parrish at the time commentating stated "Oh it was hard but fair"...B.S.

To add balance Marquez has pulled numerous moves over the past few years, sometimes penalised but in the majority not. Maybe if they were racing on proper circuits like Brands Hatch; Oulton Park or Cadwell Park they might not be so keen to indulge in such aggression, let alone at the IOM TT races.

[chrisb]

yes Jamie, the whole thing seems to be built on aggression at the moment, aggressive riding - aggressive overtaking and sychophantic commentating is not the best recipe, but in saying that as John says it started a few years ago and wasn't punished then so why would we expect it to be punished now?

and again John is totally correct, were we at some of the 'real' racing circuits they wouldn't feel so safe in doing this -

what worries me is if the more 'correct' riders start reacting to this aggression with 'stouter' defences we will end up with a real incident that won't be good for anyone

Max Oxley has done a very good article on Lorenzo and it makes great sense, what didn't were some of the comments, how some people think is beyond me

[charleselan]

I would suggest that it wasn't punished back then, just as Ayrton's antics were not punished in his early car racing days. Profoundly poor race stewarding at the time in both cases that have had huge and dramatic effect ever since.

Not read Mat Oxley's piece in MS as I find it hard to avoid the stupefyingly inane comments that appear on all but a few of the features on that site these days. The problem being that in case of the motorcycle racing features those idiots who comment have probably never raced or ridden a motorcycle, let alone know anything about racing.

As I have not read Mat's article on Lorenzo I cannot comment as such. However his plight is not something I like to see as i know that Jorge is a great rider and you do not lose talent like that overnight. To my way of thinking he has endured difficulties that few others of the very top caliber have ever encountered. Going to a team like Honda that are solely focused on Marquez and who have built a bike that completely suits his unique needs, all of which are totally opposed to what Lorenzo requires as a rider.

All of this compounded by the series of serious injuries he has sustained since the end of last season are making the task almost impossible for him to deal with. In fact I take my hat off to the guy for having the guts to continue even though he is racing in positions that must insult his stature in the sport, that alone shows the caliber of the guy.