Francesco Bagnaia will “take full control” as MotoGP title hangs in the balance

Francesco Bagnaia says he will go full steam ahead at the 2024 Malaysian MotoGP Grand Prix as his title hopes hang in the balance after his sprint crash.

The reigning world champion is now 29 points behind Martin and could lose his crown if the Pramac rider surpasses him by nine points after Bagnaia on Sunday. fell out of the sprint.

It was Bagnaia’s eighth DNF of the year, five of which came in sprint races.

Bagnaia explained his crash on the third lap at Turn 9: “To be honest, as has happened this season, I said to myself: ‘Okay, I’ll brake a bit afterwards so as not to take any risks’ and I crashed.

“This is not the first time this has happened. I went a little slower into the corner, but hit the bump at the top of the corner and lost the front.

“I’ve done that, I don’t know how many laps this weekend and over the years, and I’ve touched it many, many, many times and never crashed.

“So there’s always a first time and it wasn’t the right time. But it’s something that, honestly, can happen.

If Martin wins on Sunday, Bagnaia must finish second to advance the championship to the final round.

As such, Bagnaia says he will “go all the way”, while also hoping Marc Marquez and Enea Bastianini can join him and Martin on pace to take points from the Pramac rider.

“I will go as always, full speed,” he said.

“I will try to win. We know perfectly well that the only negative points I have are the sprint races, because all the mistakes I made, all the points lost, are on Saturday.

“From my point of view this is a shame, but Jorge was simply better on Saturdays this season and we have to say he did very well there.

“But tomorrow I’m going all out. I really hope that Marc and Enea will find something close to us, because I think that in the worst situation at the moment Jorge will finish second, because we have no rivals.

“But giving the maximum, winning the race will not be enough. So we still need something.”

After qualifying on pole, Bagnaia lost the lead off the line to Martin, but was confident the Pramac rider would face tire wear and that the world champion’s pace on used rubber was better.

“I knew he had more problems with used tires and I just waited,” he said when Crash.net asked him 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 (thought) I would have a chance in the next few laps.

“I tried on the first lap, the first (flying lap) and I came into the ninth corner a little too aggressively and I started to get a lot of movement from the front and I didn’t crash.