Francesco Bagnai’s MotoGP rivals assess crash in Malaysia Sprint: ‘It’s like motocross’

An accident resulting in the loss of second place in the Malaysian MotoGP sprint was a major blow to the end of Francesco Bagnaia’s 2024 world title hopes.

The three-time world champion crashed in turn nine, bending the front mid-corner as his front wheel came out from under him.

Turn nine is a corner that has been difficult all weekend. On Friday, Aleix Espargaro fell there twice, and Augusto Fernandez fell there in qualifying.

Marc Marquez, who inherited second place from Bagnaia after the accident, said that the difficult conditions at this corner and Bagnai’s intensity in the first laps may have contributed to the Italian’s accident.

“It means Turn Nine is extremely critical,” said Marquez, who was directly behind Bagnaia when the Italian crashed out of the Sepang sprint.

“How many accidents do we see, this type of accident is the ninth; I mean, he pushed, he did what he had to do, and tomorrow he has to take the risk again and try to win the race because that’s his only chance to get the points back.

“When you are at the top of the championship, everything is easier to control and manage. But (Jorge) Martin is doing a very good job.”

Despite being directly behind Bagnaia at the time of the accident, Marquez was unable to provide any analysis as to why the accident occurred.

“He (Bagnaia) needs to explain,” Marquez said. “I mean, at that moment of braking, believe me, my eyes were popping out of my helmet every lap because you brake so hard and you have enough (work) to feel what’s happening to your bike.

“I only see that he lost the front in the last part. But I don’t know what happened on the bike. “

Martin: Ninth ‘really critical all weekend’

Bagnaia’s main title rival, Jorge Martin, echoed Marquez’s thoughts on the treacherous nature of turn nine this weekend and pointed out the patchy surface on the inside of that particular corner.

“It was really critical all weekend,” Martin said after winning the sprint, which put him 29 points ahead of Bagnaia in the riders’ standings.

“Yesterday I had a few moments in a time attack, today also in a time attack. It’s on a perfect line, you have three different asphalts and at one point there is no asphalt.

“It’s like motocross. It’s really difficult. You have to be really precise (with) the line in that corner.

“I haven’t seen the crash yet, so I can’t express my opinion about it. But I also had a few moments in this corner and sometimes I have to release the brakes during the race to avoid crashing.”

Enea Bastianini: “I lost the front twice in this corner”

Bagnaia’s Ducati teammate Enea Bastianini was one place behind Marquez when Bagnaia crashed and also had a view of the accident.

He reiterated that Turn Nine was difficult and gave an indication of where Bagnai’s mistake may have been.

“Today, turn nine was very critical,” said Bastianini, “because when you go on the brake you start to move a little bit, but when I let go you sometimes lose the front end.