Gresini rider Alex Marquez cruised to a commanding MotoGP victory in Malaysia for Gresini, winning by 2.6 seconds.
The Spaniard made an early move past Francesco Bagnaia before pulling away, with Pedro Acosta and Joan Mir completing the podium.
In a similar fashion to Saturday’s Sprint race, Bagnaia took the holeshot into Turn 1 ahead of Gresini’s Marquez and KTM’s Acosta.
Marquez showed his superiority inside the first sector to take the lead on Lap 2, before establishing a 0.2s lead at the end of the lap.
On Lap 3, Bagnaia and Acosta battled at Turn 3 through Turn 10 as the duo swapped positions twice.
Behind the lead trio was Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, who maintained strong pace to stay within touching distance.
However, impressively, Honda rider Joan Mir outpaced rookie Fermin Aldeguer down the front straight and took the outside line to snatch fifth spot.
His Honda bike had some serious pace in the early phases as he caught to the back of Quartararo’s Yamaha on Lap 5.
The gap between third and fourth grew to 1.1 seconds, but Mir’s overtake was a matter of when, not if.
The Spaniard’s first lunge arrived at Turn 15 on Lap 6, but he ran too hot into the corner, which enabled Quartararo to reclaim fourth.
Quartararo inevitably relinquished fourth place after Mir overtook the Frenchman into Turn 4 at the midway point.
Over three seconds up the road were Bagnaia and Acosta, who were locked in a battle for second.
Acosta overrode his KTM bike to try to find ways through, but Bagnaia’s Ducati was able to halt any overtake. The move finally came at Turn 11 on Lap 13 as the Spaniard rose into second.
Recent race winner Raul Fernandez crashed out at Turn 1 on Lap 12 while running 14th, underlining Aprilia’s ongoing struggles.
Miguel Oliveira’s race ended in the gravel traps not long after, and rookie Aldeguer almost dropped the front of his Gresini at Turn 9.
Lacking the pace he showed in Saturday’s Sprint, he ultimately crashed out of the race at Turn 15.
Drama unfolded on the very next lap for two-time champion Bagnaia, as a suspected puncture affected his Ducati.
Marquez ended the flyaways with his third victory of the season in Sepang, a track he has notoriously described as one of his strongest circuits.
Acosta secured an impressive second on the factory KTM after an early battle with factory Ducati rider Bagnaia.
As a result of Bagnaia’s puncture, Honda’s Mir was promoted to third place as he secured his second podium of the season.
Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio secured fourth and sixth for VR46, respectively, with Quartararo sandwiched in between the Italian duo.
Enea Bastianini crossed the line seventh for Tech3 KTM, ahead of Honda’s Luca Marini and the second KTM rider of Brad Binder.
Ai Ogura rounded off the top 10 after starting down in 17th for Trackhouse, finishing ahead of Aprilia’s reference rider Marco Bezzecchi.
Johann Zarco claimed 12th ahead of the Yamaha duo of Alex Rins and Jack Miller, but his team-mate Somkiat Cantra claimed the final point scoring position.
Test riders Lorenzo Savadori, Michele Pirro and Augusto Fernandez closed out proceedings for their respective brand.
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