Marc Márquez is taking steps towards the MotoGP world champion title

BarcelonaMarc Márquez is walking with a firm step towards the MotoGP champion title. In the sprint race of the Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang circuit, he secured a second place that allows him to keep making progress. The victory went to the Spaniard Pedro Acosta (KTM), who is not a rival in the general standings. Márquez (Ducati Desmosedici GP26) is more of a leader in the world championship awaiting Sunday's race. A race where he will start second behind his brother, Àlex.

The rider from Cervera now totals 374 points, 19 more than Jorge Martín (355). The Madrid native, who suffered a serious fall a week ago that caused a fracture in his arm, tried to participate in the race, but after the second round of free practice sessions, he saw that the pain was too great. And he decided not to be in the race. "I have made the correct decision" he would say later. The Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia RS-GP), third today in the short race, is also third in the general standings, 52 points behind.

It was a race that began with a minute of silence for the victims of the train accident in Urda (Toledo) and ended with a heavy downpour that the riders narrowly escaped. The race was initially dominated by Marc's brother, Àlex, and the Japanese rider Ai Ogura (Aprilia RS-GP). Àlex Márquez always feels very comfortable at the Sepang circuit, where he won a year ago, and set a good pace, but he wanted to risk so much that he crashed on the third lap. Ogura became the leader just as the possibility of rain was warned. The first drops began to fall and many riders changed tires. The leaders did not. Both Ogura, Acosta, Marc Márquez, and Marco Bezzecchi decided it was not worth it in a short race and by not going in to change, they pulled away.

Márquez was third, seeing how Ogura and Acosta in front maintained a beautiful duel for the first position with different overtakes. It seemed that the Catalan was waiting for the key moment to attack and would do so at the end to surpass Ogura and be second. The Japanese rider, after fighting so hard with some limit actions where he managed to touch Márquez, ended up off the podium as Bezzecchi also overtook him. Acosta ended up defending the first position to claim his second victory in a 'sprint' race of the season, after the one in Thailand, ahead of a Márquez who knew that with these results, he was consolidating his lead. He did it just as the rain was getting heavier, so much so that if it had fallen a little earlier, it might not have been possible to finish. With so much water and his great rival out of the fight, Márquez took out the calculator thinking about what he needed without risking too much.