• Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) wins on the Sepang circuit, thanks to a perfect tyre combination to face the weather elements of South-East Asia.
• The Ducati rider improves the track record by more than a second with MICHELIN Power Slicks with Soft compound at the front and Medium at the rear.
• At the end of this 19th race weekend, the Drivers' title is still vacant. We will have to wait until the final round of the season to know the name of the 2024 World Champion, in association with the ranges MotoGP from Michelin.
The Petronas Grand Prix of Malaysia lived up to expectations, with a Tissot Sprint and a high-tension Grand Prix. This penultimate round of the 2024 season – the 19nd– did not determine the Champion of the premier category of world two-wheelers, but it was very rich in emotions. Thanks to the consistent performance of Michelin tires, the riders were able to give their all, and fight without any concessions until the finish line.
In Sepang, it sometimes rained at night, but the days were dry, warm, with a high percentage of relative humidity. The first test session took place on a track with damp patches, which made the set-up of the bikes complex. In addition, with the ground temperature reaching almost 55°C, testing the different tires in order to find the right one for the qualifying session was a complicated exercise. Nevertheless, the positive was quickly visible in the times: at the end of the first session, an improvement in lap time of 0,7 seconds was already recorded.
However, it was on Saturday morning that the first record of the weekend was broken. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) in fact completed the 5,543 km of the "Petronas Sepang International circuit" in 1'56.337, compared to 1'57.491 in 2023, a time also achieved by the Ducati rider.
If the pole position was achieved with MICHELIN Power slicks with Soft compound at the front and Medium at the rear, it was also this combination which allowed the vast majority of drivers to achieve a Tissot Sprint at a very high pace.
« We had the right tires for the conditions, and several strategies were possible. " noted Piero Taramasso, manager of Michelin's two-wheel competition. “After Thailand, where we had already seen that heat and humidity were complex elements to conscript, we have taken things up a notch here in Malaysia. But our partners, assisted by our teams on the ground, have managed to find the right recipe to discover the best operating windows for our tires. With very hot ground and air loaded with humidity, the right compromise was not easy to determine. But the package we selected was relevant. The Soft tire for the front, which corresponds to the technical criteria of the Medium 2023 compound, was appropriate to go hunting for the record and maintain a high pace from start to finish. During the Tissot Sprint, we were able to see that the Medium compound was perfect, but it was also perfect for the Grand Prix since all the drivers chose it. At the front, both the Soft and Medium compounds were in the running. It was clear that Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin made different choices (the latter switching to Medium at the front) as the two championship leaders engaged in a merciless battle. It made for a particularly exciting spectacle, as the Drivers' title deadline was pushed back to the final race of the season."
For the Petronas Grand Prix of Malaysia, Michelin's partners had at their disposal three symmetrical compounds (Soft, Medium and Hard) for the front wheel. At the rear, two rubber notches, Medium or Hard, were available with an asymmetrical tread (with the right side harder, due to the greater number of corners on that side).
On Saturday afternoon, Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) won the Tissot Sprint, ahead of Marc Marquez (Gresini Racing) and Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team).
Sunday, the Grand Prix saw the victory of Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team, ahead of Jorge Martin, and Enea Bastianini, on the second Ducati.
New records at the Sepang circuit
Tissot Sprint
- Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) broke the lap record in the Sprint race, with a time of 1'57.805 (against 1'58.996, time achieved in 2023 by Enea Bastianini).
- The Tissot Sprint time dropped from 19'58.713 to 19'49.230, a gain of more than 9 tenths of a second on average per lap.
Grand Prix
- In qualifying Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) beat his own circuit record of 1'56.337. This is an impressive improvement of 1,154s compared to his 2023 mark (1'57.491).
After an accident involving several motorcycles on the first lap, a second start for a slightly shortened race (19 laps instead of 20) was given. The duration of the Grand Prix cannot then be compared with that of last year.
The location and date of the last round of the season (the 20nd) will be announced in the coming days. The weather events that have severely affected the Valencia region (Spain) have logically led the organizers to cancel the Grand Prix that was scheduled on the Ricardo Tormo circuit from November 15 to 17.
