The rider in the trickiest position in MotoGP’s 2024 championship battle

The 2024 MotoGP title will be decided at the final race of the season in Sunday’s Solidarity Grand Prix, after Francesco Bagnaia kept his hopes alive with sprint victory.

Ahead of this weekend’s return to Barcelona, Pramac’s Jorge Martin led the way in the standings by 24 points over Bagnaia.

Martin needed to outscore Bagnaia by just two points to clinch the title on Saturday, but was demoted to third on the last lap of the sprint by Enea Bastianini.

With Bastianini’s factory Ducati team-mate Bagnaia winning the sprint, the gap in the standings has come down to 19 for Sunday’s 24-lap grand prix.

A number of riders at Barcelona on Saturday have already played a role in the championship fight.

Bagnaia was able to tow Marc Marquez to third on the grid in qualifying, while Aleix Espargaro qualified second while letting his close friend Martin use him as a reference to put his Pramac-run GP24 fourth.

Bastianini didn’t have the championship factored into his strategy for the sprint when he overtook Martin on the last lap, but it’s a pass that could prove pivotal depending on how Sunday goes.

Martin’s Pramac team-mate Franco Morbidelli has been unwittingly caught in the middle of the title battle, after he found himself behind Marquez and Bagnaia in Q2.

Morbidelli almost did a lap time that would have demoted Martin down to fifth on the grid, though this is where the Italian ultimately ended up.

In the sprint, Morbidelli found himself in the battle for the podium with Bastianini and Martin in a tight group.

While racing for himself, Morbidelli is in a unique position: he is team-mate to one title challenger, while the other is a fellow VR46 Academy member.

“Yeah, it is tricky,” Morbidelli said when asked by Crash.net how he is handling the situation.

“Also today when I was chasing Jorge, it was tricky.

“It’s really important and I  don’t want to be in the middle of anything.

“I’m not in any fight for championship at the moment, so I don’t want to play any role in that. I just have a really special position in watching the fight.”

He added: “I wanted to overtake Enea. I’m not protecting anybody. I don’t want to play any role. I would like to do my race. I don’t want to play any role in this.”

When asked, if the situation arises, he would overtake Martin, he said: “Yes, as well.”

He gave the same reply when asked the same thing about passing Bagnaia: “Yes as well. It is the place to be.”