BARCELONA: Francesco Bagnaia produced a commanding performance to win Saturday’s sprint at the Barcelona MotoGP, ensuring that the battle for the world championship title would go to the last race of the season.
Championship leader Jorge Martin finished third behind Bagnaia’s Ducati-Lenovo teammate Enea Bastianini and will take a reduced 19-point lead into Sunday’s grand prix.
Bagnaia arrived in Barcelona with a 24-point deficit and knowing that he effectively needed to win both the sprint and the grand prix to have any chance of denying Martin a first world title.
The Italian has already won 10 of 19 grands prix this season but his lack of consistency has let him down.
But having won in Malaysia a fortnight ago he was again in imperious form as he set the pace in qualifying to take pole for both the sprint and the grand prix.
Martin, in contrast, could only qualify fourth, on the second row of the grid.
The Spaniard, however, made a good start although not good enough to catch Bagnaia who made sure he didn’t repeat the error he made in the sprint in Sepang when he crashed out early after again starting on pole.
While Bagnaia ran his own race up ahead Martin was locked in a thrilling duel with Bastianini, the two swapping places throughout until the final lap when the Italian swept past on turn 5 and held on for second.
Martin, who has been the most consistent driver of the season, remains the overwhelming favourite to win his first world championship.
If Bagnaia is to collect a third consecutive title, he will have to win Sunday’s grand prix and hope that the Madrid rider finishes no better than ninth. Or he can finish second and pray that Martin does no better than 15th.
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