The MotoGP world championship is over: Francesco Bagnaia is MotoGP world champion! The Italian benefited from Jorge Martin’s crash with Marc Marquez in a last-ditch attempt to recover positions!
Everything is in place for the start of the final race of the season, for which Bagnaia starts with a 14-point lead over Martin and, given the penalty for Maverick Viñales, will have to start from pole position. It’s not a favourable scenario for Martín, who knows that he is practically obliged to win while hoping that Bagnaia doesn’t go any further than sixth, even if there are other conditions for that.
In the event of equal points, and as Race Director Mike Webb has already confirmed, the winner will be the one who has won the most GP victories, with Bagnaia therefore the winner, even if Martín comes away with the win today.
Both riders opted for the same tyre selection, with the medium at the front and the hard at the front.
The start went well for Bagnaia, who made the most of his pole position for the race. Martin soon moved up to second place.
With the spaniard within 0.119s of the italian in the opening laps, the moment of greatest intensity came on lap three, when Martín was practically glued to his Ducati rival, and ended up touching him on the back of the bike. The Pramac rider ended up touching Bagnaia and losing six positions, rejoining the race in eighth. If the going was tough for Martin, the worst scenario was hard to predict!
Over the next few laps Martín improved and climbed to sixth, but… disaster, disaster, disaster!
Marc Marquez and Martin were involved in a crash and crashed out of the race.
Francesco Bagnaia is the new world champion!