Francesco Bagnaia yesterday won the MotoGP Thailand Grand Prix in wet conditions to close the gap on championship leader Jorge Martin, who was second, with two race weekends left.
Spaniard Martin’s lead over defending champion Bagnaia, of Italy, was cut from 22 points to 17, ahead of another chapter in their title tussle at Sepang in Malaysia this week.
Pedro Acosta was third at a rainy Buriram, but this was all about Martin and Bagnaia, with the championship now a two-horse race and likely to go right down to the wire.
Photo: AFP
After Malaysia, the season finale is at Valencia on Nov. 15-17.
Pramac Racing’s Martin, who is trying to win the world crown for the first time, said he was happy to settle for second, coming home nearly three seconds behind.
“The level we are demonstrating — not a lot of people can understand how fast we are going even in these conditions,” he said.
Photo: AFP
Bagnaia thanked his Ducati team for keeping his hopes of a third world title in a row alive.
“We did an incredible job. So, so happy,” he said.
Martin began the race on the front row in third and made a lightning start to grab the lead from his pole-sitting rival.
However, the 26-year-old did not stay there long, running wide to fall to third as Bagnaia took the lead with six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez in hot pursuit.
At the halfway point of the 26-lap race it had developed to a duel between Bagnaia and Marquez, with Martin struggling to keep up, but Marquez pushed too hard in trying to take the lead and slid off on his Ducati.
That left the title rivals to battle it out for victory, but Bagnaia held his nerve and handled the demanding conditions to see out a crucial ninth win of the campaign.
Earlier, Japan’s Ai Ogura was crowned Moto2 world champion as he came second in a red-flagged race won by Spain’s Aron Canet.
The 23-year-old Ogura would move up to MotoGP next season.
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