Bagnaia needed to outscore Quartararo by 11 points to secure the world championship at Sepang, but Quartararo recovered from 12th to third to keep the door ajar to set up just the fifth season finale title decider in the MotoGP era.
Poleman Jorge Martin converted pole to the holeshot on his Pramac Ducati, while Bagnaia went from ninth to second at the first corner as Quartararo followed him up the order to sixth.
Martin held an early advantage as he extended his lead to over a second, while Bagnaia had the close attentions of Gresini Ducati’s Enea Bastianini.
Quartararo – carrying a left-hand finger fracture after an FP4 crash – quickly overtook Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli for fifth on the opening lap, with the Italian dropping down the order after serving two long lap penalties for impeding in FP3.
Honda’s Marc Marquez was fourth at the end of the first lap but his pace wasn’t strong enough to keep the podium runners in sight, and he soon fell into the clutched of Quartararo.
Quartararo tried to pass Marquez at the last corner when the Honda rider ran wide, but was shuffled back to fifth on the cutback.
Marquez ran wide again into Turn 1 at the start of lap five, however, allowing Quartararo to come through as Marquez had to turn his attention to fending off the hard-charging Suzukis of Joan Mir and Alex Rins.
Enea Bastianini, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
On lap seven, Bagnaia was promoted to the lead when Martin crashed out going through Turn 5, with Bastianini close to wiping out the factory Ducati rider into Turn 14 that same tour.
Bastianini would overtake Bagnaia for the lead in a clear sign of no factory orders from Ducati being issued to the Gresini man, the Italian passing his future team-mate at Turn 4 on lap 11 of 20.
Bagnaia made a mistake chasing Bastianini on lap 14, running slightly wide at Turn 7, but rallied to retake the lead at the last corner.
With Quartararo third, Bagnaia was only 23 points clear in the championship and needed VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi to get himself into the mix.
Bezzecchi cleared the Suzuki pair and Marquez by mid distance and closed to within a second of Quartararo.
That gap would come down to as low as four tenths, but come lap 16 Quartararo had moved a second clear again and continued pull away as he started to close in on the leading duo.
Bastianini continued to hound Bagnaia over the final laps and came close to contact on the last tour as he…
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