Francesco Bagnaia ‘totally ship’ as MotoGP title hangs in the balance

Francesco Bagnaia says he will go full steam ahead at the 2024 MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix as his title hopes hang in the balance after a sprint accident.

The reigning world champion is now 29 points behind Martin and could lose his crown if the Pramac rider overtakes him by nine points on Sunday after Bagnaia he dropped out of the sprint.

It was Bagnaia’s eighth DNF this year, five of which came in sprint races.

Explaining his crash on lap three at Turn 9, Bagnaia said: “To be honest, I just – as has happened before this season – said to myself, ‘OK, I’ll brake a bit later so as not to take any risks’ and crashed.

“This is not the first such case. I entered the corner a little slower, but I hit a bump at the apex of the corner and lost the front.

“It was like that, I don’t know how many laps this weekend and over the years, but I touched it many, many, many times and I never crashed.

“So there’s always a first time and it’s not the right time. But honestly, it’s something that could happen.”

If Martin wins on Sunday, Bagnaia will need to finish second to advance the championship to the final round.

As such, Bagnaia insists he will go full speed ahead, while hoping that Marc Marquez and Enea Bastianini will join himself and Martin at the right pace to take points away from the Pramac rider.

“I will go as usual, with full dispatch,” he said.

“I will try to win. We know perfectly well that the only negatives I have are the sprint races, because all the mistakes I made, all the points I lost, happened on Saturdays.

“From my point of view it’s a pity, but Jorge has simply been better on Saturdays this season and we have to say he did a very good job there.

“But I will send the full shipment tomorrow. I really hope that Marc and Enea will find something that will be close to us, because I think that at the moment, in the worst situation, Jorge will take second place, because we have no rivals.

“But giving your best and winning the race is not enough. So we will need something more.”

After qualifying on pole position, Bagnaia lost the lead to Martin, but he was confident that the Pramac rider would experience tire wear and that the world champion’s pace would be better on used rubber.

“I knew he was having more trouble with the tires he was using and I just waited,” he said when asked by Crash.net what his strategy was when he lost the lead.

“As soon as he started getting better, I waited. Then I saw that the pace wasn’t that fast, so I just (thought) I’d have a chance in the next laps.

“I tried on the first lap, the first (flying lap) and I got to turn nine a little too aggressively, I started having a lot of movement at the front and I didn’t fall.