Francesco Bagnaia gave his all in an attempt to claim a third consecutive MotoGP title, but ultimately finished as the runner-up. In Barcelona, he did everything within his power – securing pole position and winning both the Sprint and main races. However, it wasn’t enough to surpass Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati).
The Italian Ducati rider admitted that he already knew his mission was nearly impossible: ‘I will accept in some days, but after the crash in Malaysia I understoond that was more complicated. To gain 29 points was quite tough. But I just tried to do the maximum, winning all the remaining races, and I think it was the maximum I could do’.
Speaking at a press conference, Bagnaia acknowledged Martín’s superior consistency: ‘Jorge did a better job in terms of consistency. He was better, he finished 17 or 18 times in second during the season, so it’s something unbelievable’.
The 2022 and 2023 champion reflected on his season’s performance, admitting that while it was strong overall, too many non-scoring races made it hard to aim for the title: ‘On our side, we just had a bit of bad luck, and I also made some mistakes. So, it’s difficult to imagine winning a title with eight zeros. We also beat last season’s points tally even with eight zeros. So, I think we did a very good job, and we also dominated the races in terms of victories. But it wasn’t enough, and for next year I will have to learn from my season, learn from some situations that happened this season, and try to be better’.