Shock fall of Bagnaia; boulevard for Martín towards the 2024 title

By crashing in the first laps of the sprint race in Sepang, Malaysia, on the penultimate round of the 2024 MotoGP world championship, Francesco Bagnaia left an ideal field of expression for Jorge Martín, winner, and a red carpet Ducati rolled ahead of the Spanish rider for his first world title in the premier category.

Implacable resistance in qualifying while Martín went all out in Q2, Pecco Bagnaia nevertheless displayed great composure and spectacular control to take pole position in the final moments of the session which is held at 3:00 a.m. French time.

This morning, in the sprint race, Bagnaia was unable to keep Martín behind at the start and quickly found himself having to both keep the leading pace of his rival, while closely monitoring a Marc Márquez who had nothing to lose right behind him. It was in turn 9 that the Italian lost control of his factory Ducati, and forced himself to follow the rest of the race from the side of the track, knowing that he had possibly been at the origin of the definitive turning point of the championship.

With his 16^e victory in the sprint, Jorge Martín, who entered Malaysia with a 17-point lead, is now alone in front with 29 points. He only needs to score nine points more than Bagnaia in the race on Sunday to be titled in this penultimate event of the season, while the question still arises of knowing where the final meeting will be after the cancellation due to the climatic disasters of the Valencia GP, which was to be held in two weeks.

Bagnaia now has the obligation to finish at least second if Martín wins the GP on Sunday, to maintain a tiny chance of a third consecutive coronation.