Francesco Bagnaia predicts “battle between all four of us” at Aragon MotoGP

Francesco Bagnaia played a starring role in the last two Aragon MotoGPs, duelling with Marc Marquez for a debut victory in 2021 before losing out to Enea Bastianini in an equally close 2022 showdown.

But the reigning double world champion and title leader thinks a four-way fight between the leading Ducatis is possible during Aragon’s return to the calendar this weekend.

“I'm happy to be here because I like this track, the layout is fantastic,” Bagnaia said. “It's a good mix of braking and fast corners, so I think we can enjoy our bike like the last two times we were here when it was suiting perfectly the layout.

“I think it will be a battle between all four of us. Because Enea won last time here, I won in 2021, Marc won here six times. And Jorge was always fast. So it will be a nice battle.”

The Italian, who starts the weekend just five points ahead of Pramac rider Martin, added: “It's difficult to open a gap at this track and it would be nice to have a battle like 2021 and 2022.”

Team-mate and defending winner Bastianini agreed that “all four riders can win” and much will depend on starting the weekend strongly from opening practice.

The big unknown at present is the new asphalt which, if it proves abrasive, could play into Bastianini’s hands.

“The new asphalt can change something, but first we have to try all of the tyres because we have three [instead of two] for the rear and three for the front. Let's see what we use during the race.”

Martin said he is the odd one out since he hasn’t yet won in the MotoGP class at Aragon. Despite being so close to Bagnaia in the standings, he also hasn’t won a Sunday race since Le Mans.

“It's been a long time since Le Mans but also Sachsenring I was close, but I crashed. So I feel strong. I feel I always have the potential for victory,” said Martin, who finished ninth and sixth in the ’21 and ’22 Aragon MotoGPs.

“The last two weekends I was more maybe conservative trying to get points, also Pecco was at an amazing level in Austria, so it was really difficult.

“And here it’s complicated. I mean these three guys have won here already in MotoGP. I just won in Moto3 [in 2018]. So I'm the one missing. Hopefully, I can close it here…”

Marquez said he will need a perfect weekend to stand a chance of fighting for victory, while Bagnaia warned that - despite leading the world championship - he will fight just as hard as in 2021.

“Absolutely. My mentality didn't change. I want to win. The only difference between 2021, my first victory and now is that right now I know the different ways to win,” he said.

“If the 2021 race was now, I would be trying to manage more the gap, to have more margin between me and Marc. But the fight could be the same and it would be fantastic to have the same fight and also the same result on Sunday.”