Pecco Bagnaia wins the sprint and delays Jorge Martín’s alirón

The vibrant head-to-head that Jorge Martín and Pecco Bagnaia are starring in during 2024 experienced its penultimate episode on a Saturday where the two candidates had a mission. The only thing the Italian had to do was win and the Spaniard had to add and not make mistakes. Both fulfilled their mission, so the championship will be decided on the last Sunday of the season. It will be the most important race in the life of the San Sebastián de los Reyes rider, who already caresses the MotoGP crown with his fingers.

Bagnaia marked territory from the morning, achieving pole and also putting two drivers between him and Martín, who started fourth on the grid. Along with the Italian, Aleix Espargaró was on the front row, who was 55 thousandths away from pole in his last race as an active driver, and Marc Márquez, to whom Bagnaia’s wheel gave him the extra he needed on a circuit where He has never had the best of feelings.

It seemed like an intelligent strategy for the two-time MotoGP champion, who needed to win and have more rivals in the battle, although once the traffic light went out, the Italian took the lead and did not speculate, achieving an authoritative victory from traffic light to flag. «Mission accomplished and that’s enough. “I won the sprint, I took pole position and the objective was to take the World Championship until tomorrow,” commented Bagnaia, who warned that he would not try to do anything strange in Sunday’s race to compact the group. «It is not something that I like to do, nor that I think it would be worth it, because it does not seem that any of those behind could overtake Martín, who if he had difficulties would finish third at most. “I will do my career, I will go out to win and have fun.”

With Bagnaia unreachable ahead, it was up to Martín to fight for the podium. He took the lead momentarily after another brilliant start, but he was soon overtaken by Bagnaia and Bastianini, who was the one with whom he had to sweat the most. Both passed each other several times and when it seemed that the Spaniard had second position within reach, the Italian was reborn, overtaking him on the last lap, but not without taking some risk.

«It has been a bit of a tense race. I started very well, I wanted to put myself in first position and I saw myself with the pace to move forward, but I saw that it was going to be very difficult,” commented the one from San Sebastián de los Reyes, who described his battle with Bastianini. «It was a nice fight and the fact that he wanted to pass me has helped me stay focused. “I thought I had it under control on the last lap, but the important thing is that I have gained the necessary points to have a little more peace of mind.”

The championship accounts

That overtaking by Bastianini on Martín deprived him of two points, which changes little in terms of the championship, but they change something. And Martín will face the last race of the season with 19 points of income. Which means that it would be enough for him to add seven points this Sunday, regardless of what his rival does. That is, with a ninth place he would be champion, even if his rival won the race; and if Bagnaia finished second, Martín would be better off finishing fourteenth. The rest of the combinations give the winner to the Madrid native, who has a very good chance of becoming the fifth Spanish champion of the premier class.

For the rest, Aleix Espargaró finished in fourth position, being the only non-Ducati motorcycle in the top 8. He celebrated it on the lap of honor riding the Honda 125 cc with which he debuted in the World Championship in 2005. The Catalan, who says goodbye as an active driver this weekend, he gained position from Álex Márquez in the final laps.

Five seconds behind, the second group entered, led by Morbidelli and with Marc Márquez in seventh position. A result that made clear the lack of confidence on this circuit, where he has not had a good feeling all weekend, despite the front row of Q2. The man from Cervera had a contact at the start with Pedro Acosta, for which he took responsibility and which ended with the Murcian’s sprint, which promised a lot. “It was a race incident, but if anyone could avoid it it was me, he has not seen me at any time,” confessed Márquez, who with this result provisionally loses third position in the championship in favor of Bastianini.

In the small categories, where there are few things left at stake, Arón Canet took the Moto2 pole, ahead of Manu González, who could finish third in the championship in the fight with Sergio García, Fermín Aldeguer and Alonso López. And in Moto3, the pole went to the king of the light displacement, David Alonso, with Colin Veijer second, Iván Ortolá third and Dani Holgado fifth. These three riders will compete for the Moto3 runners-up spot.