Pecco Bagnaia won his eighth race of the year during the recent Japanese GP, already one more than in 2023. In the history of MotoGP, only Marc Márquez, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner (to whom we can add Mick Doohan, Giacomo Agostini and Mike Hailwood for the 500cc category) have won as many or more Grands Prix in the same season, each time with the title at stake. However, Bagnaia has no certainty of being crowned this year, and for good reason, since he is not even at the top of the championship.
Before the last four Grands Prix of the year, Jorge Martín leads the way with ten points ahead of his rival, although he has only won three Grands Prix. You might think that the Pramac driver makes the difference thanks to his successes in sprint racing, his great specialty, but he has five this year, one less than Bagnaia.
“It’s paradoxical to say that Pecco has won eight races and Jorge three, and despite that he is ten points behind in the championship”Davide Tardozzi, the team manager of the official Ducati team, told GPOne. “It’s an open wound, but I think Bagnaia knows it well and I’m convinced that he will be able to bring all the satisfaction that he and the team deserve, because in the end Pecco is aware of the value of the team.”
The Italian driver suffered several falls and some poor performances, in what he himself described as “championship of errors” facing Martin. Bagnaia fell in the sprints of Jerez, Barcelona and Silverstone, as well as in the main races of Portimão, Aragón and Misano 2. He was also in difficulty in the sprint of Le Mans and on Saturday at the GP of Aragón.
Martín also paid his share of mistakes, with crashes during the Mugello and Mandalika sprints, as well as the main races at Jerez and the Sachsenring. He also suffered a crash in qualifying at Motegi.
Marc Márquez attributes these numerous errors to the level of performance achieved in MotoGP, which now pushes people to take big risks to make the difference. Even if they very rarely face each other directly on the track, Bagnaia and Martín are therefore pushed to their limits in the quest for the slightest gain and, from Tardozzi’s point of view, it will be very difficult to decide between them.
“Never will the winner of the title be as deserving as this year, and the runner-up will be as deserving. There is absolute mutual respect between Pecco and Martín, because both know their strengths and Pecco is not afraid to face Jorge in Valencia, where he will be very strong at home.”
