MotoGP: Martin Inches Closer To Maiden Championships Title, Bagnaia Crashes Out

SEPANG, Nov 2 (Bernama) -- Prima Pramac Racing rider, Jorge Martin is on the brink of claiming his maiden MotoGP World Championship title after charging to victory in the sprint race of the 2024 Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Sepang International Circuit today.

Starting from the second grid, the Spaniard demonstrated his dominance from the outset, making a perfect launch to overtake reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia of the Ducati Lenovo Team in Turn 1.

Drama unfolded when Bagnaia, who is widely known as Pecco, skidded in Turn 9 during the second lap and crashed out of the race, which was held under the gloomy weather.

The incident allowed the 26-yar-old Martin to mantain his lead convincingly, ultimately crossing the finish line with a time of 19 minute 49.230 seconds (s) followed by Marc Marquez of Gresini Racing MotoGP in second place (+0.913s), while Bagnaia’s teammate, Enea Bastianini  rounded out the top three (+2.010s).

Today’s result leaves Martin, who is currently on top of the overall standings with 465, only needing at least a nine-point difference in the main race tomorrow to be crowned as the new world champion, as the 2024 season heads into the penultimate round after Sepang.

The last race of the season, which was supposed to take place in Valencia, Spain, on Nov 15 to 17, has been cancelled due to heavy flooding and the organiser is set to announce the new location of the final race soon.

Meanwhile, Bagnaia, is now in second place of the championships standings with 436 points after his unfortunate crash brought an unceremonious end to the Italian’s fine run in Sepang this season as he previously topped all the charts in Free Practice 1 (1:58.795s) and Practice (1:57.679s) yesterday followed by another dominating run with 1:58.658s in Practice 2, this morning.

The sprint race was introduced for the first time in the premier class last year, and has half the amount of laps of tomorrow’s race.

It also offers championship points that are awarded differently to the full race, with 12 points to the winner, going all the way down to one point for the top nine finishers.

-- BERNAMA