Marquez: “I was on a mission to win this race, did everything perfectly”

One of the pre-race favourites due to his long run pace in practice, Marquez soon became the rider to beat.

The Gresini Ducati rider was clearly the most comfortable in the lead group as he was able to recover from an intense battle with Jorge Martin to close down Francesco Bagnaia with ease.

• Malaysian MotoGP, Sepang - Sprint Race Results 
• Marquez dominates Sepang sprint as Martin gets the better of Bagnaia

Just half the race gone, Marquez made a second attempt at taking the lead away from Bagnaia, but unlike the first, the Spaniard was successful.

Marquez dove to the inside of Bagnaia at turn nine and managed to hold the apex, giving the reigning world champion no chance of squaring off the corner.

From that point forward, Marquez was unchallenged as he stretched clear from Martin who also came through on Bagnaia with just over four laps to go.

Talking to MotoGP.com post-race, Marquez said: “Today I was on a mission and the mission was to win this sprint race. 

“I know that tomorrow we have a better chance because the race pace looks really good, but in the sprint I didn’t expect to make that difference. 

“I was expecting to be with the top riders, with Jorge and Pecco who was struggling a little bit more. I did everything perfectly, timed everything perfectly, so I’m really happy. 

“We were struggling in the last races. People forget that I was injured and was coming back, but now we are here. We need to keep the level like this until Valencia.”