After starring in the biggest comeback in MotoGP history, the Italian rider will enjoy his first chance to clinch the title
In mid-June, halfway through the championship, Pecco Bagnaia was in sixth place, 91 points behind Fabio Quartararo. Today, with only two Grands Prix to go until the end of the season, the Italian leads the World Championship by a margin of 14 points and will receive his first title ball this weekend. Of the many possible combinations, most repeated at the Sepang circuit, a victory for the Ducati rider with the Frenchman off the podium would make the Valencia race a mere formality. If he was eventually crowned champion, he would at least have signed the biggest comeback in MotoGP history.
To get into this situation Bagnaia had to draw a near-perfect second half of the year (almost, because he added a zero in Japan), while his rival is fading. The Ducati’s technical superiority has benefited him, but so has the numerical one, as he was able to put several factory colleagues between him and Quartararo in a race.
After successfully winning the constructors’ title, the Italian marque finally has the chance to win a drivers’ title that has been elusive since 2007 with Casey Stoner. Incidentally, Bagnaia would become the first Italian to win the motorcycling queen class since Valentino Rossi’s last title in 2009. Precisely the possible heir to two myths like Stoner and Rossi has Stoner and Rossi as his personal advisors. Firstly, thanks to the fact that his current chief mechanic was also from the Australian. And second, because since its inception, Bagnaia has been part of the VR46 Academy, which was founded in 2013 by the legend of Tavullia to promote Italian motorcycling.
The wind is now in Bagnaia’s favor, which will also be helped by the Sepang circuit layout, with two long straights much more favorable for the Ducati than for the Yamaha. Although as always when the championship lands in a tropical country like Malaysia, the weather factor will have to be taken into account. In addition, Bagnaia already knows what it is like to judge a title on the Asian circuit. He did it in 2018 when he was proclaimed Moto2 champion. Four years later, the Italian recalled that even more stressful experience: «It was more difficult then, because it was the first time I experienced something like this. Now, no doubt, I arrive under pressure, but more relaxed.
Many are betting that Bagnaia will condemn the championship on Sunday, despite Quartararo promising a battle. The French driver will race in Malaysia with a different mentality. “Now I have nothing to lose,” he said at the press conference, sitting next to his rival. One of the few who still believe in the Frenchman is Marc Márquez, and he has his reasons. “Sometimes when you put yourself in second place and you are the chaser instead of the chased, you get let go. I don’t see Quartararo as a bottomless pilot. In training he is always fast, but circumstances have made him the last races failed. And the driver from Cervera, who comes from the podium in Australia, condemned: “I’m honest, I expect a reaction from Quartararo.”
Aleix Espargaró is also not giving up, an inveterate optimist despite being 27 points behind the MotoGP leader. The Spaniard, another who has warned that he will attack in Malaysia, has only one goal between his eyebrows, to keep the World Cup alive until Valencia: “I don’t need a miracle, if we bring the championship to Valencia, there can it all happen.” Just as the wind is now blowing in Bagnaia’s favor, it can turn over the weekend.
With the Moto3 title won by Izan Guevara last weekend, the Moto2 title has yet to be clarified, arguably the most even category in the championship. The leader Ai Ogura leads Augusto Fernández by just 3.5 points and to crown the Japanese in Malaysia he would have to win the race and the Balearic driver to finish thirteenth or worse. Everything points to the fact that at least one title is at stake in Valencia. And why not two?
Source: La Verdad
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