by Tracy Hagen

Dani Pedrosa put his freak crash at Aragon behind him and raced to victory at Malaysia, his third of 2013 and first since round four in France nearly five months ago. Pedrosa’s nominal teammate, Marc Marquez, finished second and extended his points lead to 43 over the defending world champion, Jorge Lorenzo, who took the final podium spot in Sepang.

Pedrosa’s win was in part due to an excellent start from the second row, and awful starts by Marquez, on pole, and Cal Crutchlow, on the outside of the front row. Lorenzo also made an excellent getway from the second row, overtaking his front row teammate, Valentino Rossi, before Turn 1.

At the hairpin Turn 1 it was Loenzo ahead of Pedrosa – no, wait, Pedrosa ahead of Lorenzo – scratch that, Lorenzo ahead of Pedrosa. Rossi followed in third with Marquez and Alvaro Bautista completing the five-rider leading group.

Usually Lorenzo is unmatched on cold tires, but today was different. Pedrosa stayed leashed to Lorenzo and even considered passing him going into Turn 1 at the start of the second lap.

The first five were covered by less than a second over the first four laps, with Lorenzo leading the way. Pedrosa made a threat at Turn 4 on the fifth lap, and later made good on the threat on the back-straight to the final turn. The lead duo made brief contact at that corner, and Pedrosa took control of the race, for good.

The next four laps were spectacular. Lorenzo and Marquez fought over second, both determined to overtake the other at the next corner. At was reminiscent of Schwantz and Rainey at the 1987 Trans-Atlantic Match Races or the 1991 German Grand Prix. Marquez played the part of Schwantz to perfection, bending the bike up going into the corner, while Lorenzo was Rainey’s Mr. Perfect.

As was the case in the Match Races and the German GP, the wild man won. Marquez passed Lorenzo for the last time at Turn 14 on lap 9 and was more than happy to settle for second knowing that nearly assures him of the MotoGP championship.

Rossi finished his pre-ordained fourth. Bautista battled Crutchlow for the last two-thirds of the race, with the Spainard coming out on top. Crutchlow praised his team afterwards for having the engine running well again, but added the tires couldn’t cope with the heat.

The factory Ducatis avoided each other this time. Nicky Hayden got a better start than Andrea Dovizioso and was catching the ever-improving Bradley Smith until the engine went up in smoke on lap 8.

Aliex Espargaro was top CRT superbike, but what will be remembered more in the CRT division was that Colin Edwards, Hector Barbera, and Michael Laverty all received ride-through penalties for jumping the start.

It will be interesting to see how Pedrosa and Marquez will remember this race. Pedrosa, picking up a consecutive victory at Sepang, will no doubt feel that the best rider won. Marquez may claim that he settled for second, took points from Lorenzo, and gave Pedrosa a win to make-up for the Aragon accident.

Next race: Phillip Island, October 20