Bagnaia: Wins won’t be enough to defend MotoGP title now against Martin

Francesco Bagnaia aired his frustration at suffering a slight but important loss to MotoGP title rival Jorge Martin with his run to third place in the Thailand Grand Prix sprint race.

Though the race itself went the way of Enea Bastianini, Bagnaia’s failure to defend against Martin for second place sees his rival ease his overall advantage out to 22 points with five races remaining.

It means Martin can afford to finish second in each of the remaining three grands prix and two sprint races to secure this year’s title, even if Bagnaia wins them all.

As such, Bagnaia doesn’t want to leave anything to chance in these remaining races but remained frustrated to have been overhauled by Martin in a straight fight having started from pole.

“My feeling wasn’t ideal as it was this morning,” he admitted.

“I struggled to be competitive on the braking, my fastest sectors during the weekend was sector one and three, today I was losing that.

“We luckily lost just two points and we have tomorrow to try to close this gap, because Jorge can just finish second and still be champion. We have to focus on the results and be more perfect.”

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Bagnaia also raised a view that Martin violated track limits enough to earn a penalty, claiming to have counted four occasions in which he strayed onto the green.

“I thought so and I started to count because when I saw it twice I thought one more is a penalty so I counted two more, but maybe I counted wrong.”

Bagnaia not seeking in-house Ducati help in title bid

Bagnaia isn’t prepared to count on other Ducati riders to side with him rather than stablemate Martin in his attempt to make it three titles in a row.

“I know it is hard to believe but I never had any help by anyone in Ducati. I always like a clean race and clean battle, I try to be as clean as possible and not touch anyone.

“Also, I don’t want any help and I will not ask for any.”