This last part of the MotoGP season has often been decisive, however the truly important moment of 2023 is now approaching: this weekend in Qatar, Pecco Bagnaia already has his first chance to close the games and proclaim himself world champion for the second time. However, Jorge Martin will not stand by and will try to postpone the title race to Valencia, where he hopes to emerge victorious.
The two contenders are separated by only 14 points, a gap that can be easily recovered by the Pramac rider, who aims to reduce the gap in order to get to Spain and really compete: “Recovering points is my objective so I have to simply score the most points in this race. In Malaysia I was a bit stuck, a bit tense… I was afraid of falling at every corner and this didn’t allow me to be completely fluid. Now, however, I’m still second in the standings, I could change the position and be first. So I can take risks to make it happen.”
Among the various risks is that of tire pressure. With the new regulation, going below the minimum allowed limit gives you a warning and, for the second time, you get a 3 second penalty on your final times. Both Martin and Bagnaia have a warning each and it will also be important to manage the tire aspect in Lusail: “Now we have the warning, we are very close and we will bet, we will try. I hope that this result will not be decided in an office, but on the track.”
There will therefore be some work to do from the first session on Friday, especially to understand how the tires behave. The Qatari track has been renewed and new asphalt has been laid: “There will certainly be more grip with the new asphalt and it will be interesting to understand the tires and the management. We have a lot of information from the past, but meager information is useless, so we need to see how to handle this thing. It will be important to be intelligent and quick to manage the situation.”
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing
In this we could do “team work”, with Ducati having eight bikes on the track and the sharing of data to carry out a possible comparison: “We are used to it, I imagine that Pecco knows what my setting is because I almost never change it . However fighting for the title is not easy with this data thing, but I know we can make the most of it. The fact that there are eight of us allows us to share data on tires and other things. I think we will all try to be competitive.”
However, teamwork could go in favor or against one or the other driver. With a majority Italian team, it cannot be ruled out that Bagnaia’s teammates will help their “standard bearer” in some way. We saw it last Saturday in the Sepang Sprint with Enea Bastianini. However, Martin is not worried about this aspect, which he cannot control and which still remains an inference: “I think to myself, if I give 100% I can beat everyone. I’ll focus on the weekend and on myself, then if someone helps Pecco, I can’t control it.”
“We’ll all be pretty close, but we’ll see,” continues the Pramac standard bearer, going more general and hypothesizing what the race could be like. “There will certainly be a tussle with all the fastest riders. It’s an opportunity to score points but also to lose them, so we’ll have to be smart and quick. And try to win.”
The Qatar Grand Prix may define the outcome of the championship, but if everything were to be decided in Valencia, Martin would show up for the last race of the season playing at home: “I think there is a lot of pressure and we know it. It’s a very important weekend also because we can make mistakes and if you make them you lose the world championship. So you have to be fast but without making mistakes. It will certainly be a complicated weekend. However, I don’t think the title is decided here. I believe it will be decided in Valencia. I like Valencia because I have always had good races and I won my first world championship race there. In the last two seasons I have been on the podium, so we hope to recover as many points as possible and be able to challenge for the title in Valencia. I will enjoy that moment.”
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