As if it were the evening before the most anticipated boxing match of the year, the organization of the MotoGP World Championship confronted the two title candidates at the press conference before the Qatar GP. This weekend, Jorge Martín and Pecco Bagnaia are the stars in the penultimate attack on the championship, with the Madrid native chasing the current world champion in the overall standings. Only 14 points separate them, 74 points are at stake, and it is the Spaniard who realizes that it is time to attack under the lights that illuminate the night races planned in Lusail.
“Now I will risk everything to be first. Maybe I will risk it to get it,” warns the 25-year-old pilot from San Sebastián de los Reyes. At his side, the number one of the competition, also a pillar of the Ducati project, listens attentively with a half-smile and his usual thoughtful pose. “I don’t think this weekend is a match point,” says the 26-year-old from Turin. “I have to get 23 points from him and I think that’s too many considering how well Jorge is working in this final phase,” he adds, making it clear that he has studied the numbers of this close final well. “I don’t know the math, but I know that I have to win back points,” says Martín.
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Despite their warm relationship, the underlying tension is evident in Martín’s nervous hand gestures and bowed head as both listen to the series of questions focused solely on this explosive solution to the competition between two pilots carrying exactly the same machines . The last time they faced each other in Qatar was in March 2022, recall that Bagnaia took Martín’s place while they fought for eighth place in a race that Gresini won with Enea Bastianini, now the Italian’s teammate and possible guest of Stone in the contest’s denouement following its revival in Malaysia last week.
“We will bring the title to Valencia,” promises Martín. “I feel like the pressure is on, we all know that. “It’s a complicated, important weekend because I know I can’t make any mistakes,” admits the Pramac candidate. The Madrid native will need to score at least 15 points this weekend to maintain his mathematical chances, even as he aims for the double to continue relying on himself and not on the results of his great rival. With four wins in the remaining races, the Spaniard would take the title by two points, although Bagnaia would always be second behind.
A win this Saturday is the easiest way to prevent the Turin native from having the chance to defend his title again this Sunday in Qatar. “There is a small possibility, but it is difficult to implement it. For that to happen, Jorge would have to have a problem. At the level we are at, it is impossible for it to work without mistakes,” emphasizes the champion. Bagnaia appears to be placing all attacking responsibility on Martín. Former teammates in 2015 in the ranks of Aspar in Moto3, both recognize that they respect each other but they are not friends, which makes their duels on the asphalt easier.
In Malaysia, both competitors fought hard in the early stages of Sunday’s race, with Bagnaia coming into Sepang with a podium finish that tasted like victory after a brutal overtaking maneuver on the outside of the track’s fastest corner. However, a penalty after the race took away an important joker that he actually wanted to play with. Both candidates have already been warned for driving more than 50% below the minimum pressure set by the World Cup tire supplier in a long race. This new rule means that failure to comply again would result in an automatic three-second penalty and a very likely change in the result and final standings of the World Championship. “I hope that the title will not be decided in one office,” says Martín. Both he and Bagnaia have been critical of this new regulation in the past, which now actually threatens both of them equally.
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