By Karrbon Copy
Sweltering heat, tyre-wilting humidity, and multiple Red Flags were at the order of the day in Malaysia.
Moto3:
Due to a small fracture in his hand, and the fear of another ‘incident’ happening and making it a not-small-anymore fracture, Roulstone was declared unfit to race at Sepang.
An update on Muñoz: The Spaniard will not be competing for the remainder of 2025, having had to go under the knife again when doctors noticed a (reported/alleged) thirty-degree rotation in the fracture. That’s a concerning number of degrees. All the best, David!
With all the absentees, we at least got to welcome an Indonesian local Wildcard to the mix, in the shape of Hakim Danish. A Wildcard this weekend, but a permanent member of the grid in 2026.
Drama, even before we could get to the race.
While on the Sighting Lap, Dettwiler was cruising from Turn Three towards Turn Four, happily thinking of the race ahead, and blissfully unaware of the impending doom which was about to hit him…
By ‘impending doom’, we mean a distracted Rueda who was not cruising, but going at a couple of knots faster than Dettwiler & Co up ahead. Like a scene from a ‘Dashcam Nation’ video, we looked on helplessly as a speeding Rueda missiled into Dettwiler’s left leg. Shards of bike sprayed like shrapnel as Dettwiler and his bike tumbled down mid-track, and Rueda’s KTM went off to plough the grassy fields next to the track.
It was no surprise that the Red Flag awoke soon after, and the race start was delayed. As riders were slowly carted back to pit lane, we saw a circle of people engulf Dettwiler on the track, and Rueda off-track, too.
These people remained on the track for way too long, but thankfully we were eventually informed that both Rueda and Dettwiler were conscious. Treatments continue.
Everyone’s thoughts are with the two riders, who were both eventually airlifted to a nearby hospital in Kuala Lumpur. Theres a lot to be sad for a warm up lap in every class to try and avoid stuff like this and give, especially junior riders more saddle time before the race.
Rueda was due to serve a Double Long Lap in the race for an entirely different incident.
It was announced that the race would now be a ten lapper, with a Quick Start. We had to wait for the medical air-amby to return to the track before racing commenced.
Medical Safety Cars and Safety Cars all circulated around the track, checking that everything was safe for the restart.
We finally got the go-ahead to restart, pit lane opening at 13:40 track time for the Quick Start. The grid was shuffled up in order to fill the gaps left by the absent Rueda and Dettwiler, making their absence just a little less obvious.
Having used his Dawdler’s Club membership to the full, Uriarte received a nine-place grid penalty.
When the Juniors did race, they ensured our hearts remained in our mouths throughout the ten laps, with too many close calls to mention.
One who didn’t quite manage to save his tip-off, was Buchanan.
The Kiwi rider fell off at Turn Four, on the fourth lap, sliding on his knees while holding hands with his sliding ride. An unconventional use for knee-sliders, Cormac. Were you proposing to your bike…?
Quiles had multiple near-misses throughout the race, the most notable one being a Turn Two tip-over when his bike’s front wheel lost touch with the track, resulting in Quiles having to dig his left knee into the asphalt while doing an angled split.
Having proven his potential, Indonesian local kid Danish was forced to abandon his top-ten pursuit after a spiteful mechanical gremlin buggered up something in his motorcycle’s inner works. Hakim took the off-circuit exit, vanishing in the direction of the nearest food stall.
On Lap Eight, Almansa executed another mention-worthy save when his bike decided to lie down mid-corner going around Turn Fifteen. While slipping away from the apex, Almansa whacked his lazy motorcycle over the tank, then proceeded to force it back onto its wheels with his monstrous left leg strength.
One lap later, at the same corner, Fernández had his own little close call, followed by an unexpected punt from Pini who’d lost the front – as so many had done by now – and was sliding slowly off the track while doing a very ballet-worthy pirouette aboard his fallen machine.
For some reason, Fernández did not join in on Pini’s performance and instead continued to race.
Back at the front, Furusato had pulled out a healthy lead, and subsequently claimed his first-ever Moto3 victory. At Last!
Second place went to Piqueras, while Fernández, after another near-offing on the final lap, took third.
Moodley finished in a quiet nineteenth.
Though he missed out on a podium, Quiles was crowned Moto3 Rookie of the Year. Good job, Máx!
Danish reappeared post-race, in order to punt a few items into the crowd of home fans. A confirmed rookie in 2026, we’re rather eager to see what he’s going to accomplish over a full season.
*A quick update on Rueda and Dettwiler:
Rueda was reported to be awake, with a nasty concussion, a hand-fracture, and multiple contusions.
Dettwiler is stable, but is still in ICU. Our thoughts are with him.
Moto2:
We welcomed two familiar Indonesian Wildcard faces onto the grid this weekend, namely Anuar and Azman.
Ortolá was slapped three places back on the grid for turtling around during Saturdays Practise; Guevara was given the same penalty for similar behaviour.
Due to the terrifying crash that resulted in a near-two-hour delay in Moto3, Moto2 was bumped to last on the schedule.
There is no doubt in our minds now: Dixon has a major crush on Appleyard. His wife had better keep an eye on him…
When the Warm-Up Lap started, Muñoz’s bike didn’t want to do the start thing at first, but reluctantly gave in eventually, meaning he would be able to start the race from his original grid slot, but with a Double Long Lapper to his name.
At the end of the opening lap, Roberts’ bike went full rodeo bull on him across the rumble strips, before throwing him off and leaving him for greener pastures.
Shortly afterwards, while navigating Turn Two on the second lap, Binder very gently caressed the rear end of Sasaki’s bike, which set of a chain reaction in which Binder slowed slightly. Muñoz ran up his backside, and the duo somehow managed to fall/crash between traffic, neither of them collecting nor getting collected by any other rider in the closely-spaced group.
Just as we spotted someone running straight off the circuit in the background near the end of Lap Two, the Red Flag made its second appearance of the day.
Apparently, there existed no safe way to remove Roberts’ stricken bike from its grassy grave without pulling a Red Flag.
What of the wide-rider, you ask? Turned out it was López, with some type of mechanical ailment having struck his ride. López eventually managed to restart the bike, with no lack of assistance from the eager marshals, even though he’d been having a right go at them moments earlier.
Unlike the Moto3 race, the Middleclass race had a quick Quick Restart, only fifteen minutes after the initial race got underway. It would be shortened to eleven laps, featuring everyone in their original grid slots – except for Binder and Roberts, neither of who had a bike remotely race-ready when pit lane opened.
In an attempt to get Muñoz back up and running in time, even the Moto3 contingent came rushing in to assist in fixing his Triumph. They collaborated and listened successfully, and he managed to take the restart. Adding to his change in fortune, Muñoz’s original Double Long Lap Penalty was declared null and void due to the new race start. Talk about a lucky streak.
During the opening (re-opening?) four laps of the race, the Red Flag graphic popped up to give us all heart palpitations. Twice. Even though it was obviously not a correct graphic, as Race Direction soon confirmed.
The Red Flag Guy had seen so much action that he was getting trigger-happy.
On Lap Five, Baltus’ ride tried to do what it thought was a good imitation of a wet dog shaking itself, forcing Barry to stand up while mentally uttering every Belgian curse known to man. This appeared to do the trick, and the Triumph settled back down.
Agius vanished from the Timing Tower just as Lap Six began. We soon found him pulled off at Turn One with a case of mechanical bronchitis afflicting his machine. At this time, they felt it necessary to note that Salač, too, had retired due to a technical bug.
In his box, Salač sipped angrily at his bottled water, then abruptly jumped up and left, the lovely lady who we assume is his girlfriend carefully followed him out the back of the garage.
With just three laps to go, González went sliding, feet cable-tied to the pegs, out of Turn Fifteen. Though he managed to remount, running in dead last, his spill from fifth on the track had cost him the Championship lead.
Don’t get us wrong here – that Championship is still wide open, but could this pointless finish for González come back to haunt him in the final two rounds?
Nothing else really happened, safe for the odd tiny ‘moment’.
Dixon, with a good-looking tribute-helmet in honour of his recently deceased grandfather, claimed victory with a stand-up wheelie across the finish line. Behind him, Alonso came through for second, while third place went the way of Baltus.
MotoGP:
Marc Márquez announced that he would not be seen on the track again for the rest of 2025, in order to heal up properly – not much of a surprise there, if we’re honest.
Another retiring rider who’d become part of the MotoGP furniture: Oliveira will step down from full-time racing at the end of the season.
Sprint Race:
Though it was cloudy on Saturday, the rain held off , leaving the heat and humidity to do their thing instead.
Nearly halfway through the race, Mir went full monkey as he fell over at Turn Nine, abandoning his fight for a podium position in favour of showcasing his ability to stay affixed to his bike as it did a perfect three-sixty.
Though he quickly remounted, he retired to the pits at the end of the lap.
Oliveira abandoned his bike on Lap Six at Turn One, deciding to take a brisk walk to the nearest beer tent.
On Lap Eight, Marini tried to divebomb Pol Espargaró down the inside of Turn Fourteen. This resulted in them merging into each other (did Marini lose it before contact was even made?), and Marini’s ride attempted to push Pol into the gravel. Miraculously, Pol never tasted the pebbles, Marini ending up the sole casualty of the get-together.
Something flapping in the wind caught our attention in the closing laps: A Monster sticker on the bottom of Bagnaia’s Ducati was attempting a jailbreak, and had nearly succeeded.
Bagnaia finished a clear first, his sticker barely hanging on, while Márquez (really, you know who it is) took second place in the race – and in the Championship. Third on the rostrum went to Aldeguer, though he was put under investigation for the pressure of his rubber.
Having run a very quiet race, Binder finished in fifteenth.
Was this the first time we’ve ever seen two brothers take first and second in the championship? Regardless, it certainly doesn’t happen every day, does it?
More importantly, and regardless of whether he got a penalty or not, Aldeguer was officially crowned Rookie of the Year for 2025! We were happy. Fermín was tooth-baringly happy. Life was good.
(Aldeguer was indeed slapped with a penalty later for the pressure of his tyres – resulting in him dropping to seventh, and Acosta getting a promotion onto the third step of the podium.)
Main Race:
With the delay in Moto3, the Premier Class race ended up being the second race of the day, though retaining its original timeslot.
Five laps into the race, Espargaró went down in the second sector. He walked away from the scene, first shouting profanities at the cloudless skies above, before dropping his helmeted head into his hand, low enough to headbutt the ground.
A few laps of close action played out crashlessly. Then, on Lap Eleven, Oliveira had a quick out-of-seat experience before rejoining the race.
Fernández’s – the popular Raúl-flavoured one – motorcycle feigned a fainting spell, then attempted to escape his clutches in order to find cooler pastures beyond Turn One, on Lap Twelve. Unfortunately for the Aprilia, Raúl pulled out an Olympic-level sprint performance, quickly catching up with it.
Still on Lap Twelve, Morbidelli divebombed down the inside of Quartararo, aggressively picking up the unsuspecting Frenchman as the latter realised with a start that there was actually a motorcycle coming past him in the space he’d aimed at leaning into.
Thankfully, neither of them went pebble-picking.
Though they were less prominent in the Grand Prix race than in the preceding Moto3 race, there were still a fair number of close calls and saves throughout the race. One of the most notable of them all was Aldeguer’s momentary liedown going through Turn Fifteen at the end of Lap Thirteen. The moment that th Ducati felt how hot the tarmac was, it sprang upright again, making the bike version of the typical noises people make when they touch something scalding.
By Lap Seventeen however, Aldeguer found himself on the burning tarmac of Turn Fifteen again, this time sans bike, as the machine had figured out that the gravel pit HAD to be a bit cooler than the track itself.
Aldeguer’s hands were over his visor before he was halfway through his prone slide, both in frustration and in order to block out the piercing rays of the sun above.
One moment Bagnaia was cruising to a safe second place, the next he was cruising, constantly looking back at first one, then the other side of his Ducati’s rear end in obvious confusion. Three laps shy of the checkered flag, this spiteful machine pulled a mystery prank on Pecco, forcing him to retire to the pits. No sooner had Bagnaia entered the garage than the screens went up, blocking out the curious lenses and microphones that were swarming towards them. Turns out that somehow he picked up a slow puncture.
With a comfy lead of over three seconds, Márquez – yes, you know which one – claimed the victory. Acosta took a lonely second, while Mir finished a distant third.
Binder did a decent job, finishing ninth.
The penultimate race is on the weekend of the 8th November in Portugal. Moto2 is the class to watch. We’ll see you there!
~ Karr
