Francesco Bagnaia will go “full send” as MotoGP title hangs in the balance
‘I really hope Marc and Enea will find something to be close to us’
Francesco Bagnaia says he will go “full send” in the 2024 MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix as his title hopes hang in the balance following his sprint crash.
The reigning world champion is now 29 points behind Martin and could lose his crown if the Pramac rider outscores him by nine points on Sunday after Bagnaia crashed out of the sprint.
It marked Bagnaia’s eighth DNF of the year, five of which coming in sprint races.
Explaining his lap three crash at Turn 9, Bagnaia said: “Honestly, I just - like already happened this season - told myself ‘Ok, I will brake a bit after to don’t risk’ and I crashed.
“This is not the first time it has happened. I entered that corner a bit slower, but I touched the bump in the apex of the corner and I lost the front.
“I did, I don’t know how many laps this weekend and over the years, and I touched it many, many, many times and never crashed.
“So, there is always a first time and it was not the right moment. But it’s something that, honestly, can happen.”
If Martin wins on Sunday, Bagnaia has to be second to force the championship down to the final round.
As such, Bagnaia says he was will go “full send”, while also hoping Marc Marquez and Enea Bastianini can join himself and Martin on pace in order to take points off the Pramac rider.
“I will go like always, full send,” he said.
“I will try to win. We know perfectly that the only negatives that I have is on the sprint races, because all the mistakes I did, all the lost points, are on Saturdays.
“This is a shame from my point of view, but Jorge was just better on the Saturdays this season and we have to say that he did a very good job there.
“But tomorrow I will go full send. I really hope Marc and Enea will find something to be close to us, because I think in the worst situation right now, Jorge will finish second, because we don’t have any rivals.
“But giving my maximum, winning the race will not be enough. So, we will need something more.”
Having qualified on pole, Bagnaia lost the lead off the line to Martin but was confident that the Pramac rider would encounter tyre wear and that the world champion’s pace on used rubber was better.
“I was knowing that he was more in trouble with used tyres and I was just waiting,” he said when asked by Crash.net what his strategy was when he lost the lead.
“As soon as he started better, I waited. Then I saw that the pace wasn’t that fast, so I just [thought] I will have a chance in the next laps.
“I tried in the first lap, the first [flying lap] and I arrived in that corner nine a bit too aggressive and I started to have a lot of movement from the front and I didn’t crash.
“And the lap after, I said ‘Ok, I will enter calmer’ and I crashed.
“So, it’s something that can happen. But I was quite sure that all the risk I was taking to fight back with Jorge wasn’t over the limit. So, I was quite confident but I crashed the same.”
