MotoGP: Bagnaia Fights Back, World Title Defence Remains On Track

SEPANG, Nov 3 (Bernama) -- Ducati Lenovo Team rider Francesco Bagnaia kept his MotoGP World Championships title defence hopes alive as he powered his way to claim the 2024 Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit here, today.

Today’s crucial victory saw Bagnaia or better known as Pecco not only secure his 10th title of the season but reduced the gap in the world championships standings to 24 points against the leader, Jorge Martin of Prima Pramac Racing.

As the lights turned green, chaos erupted at Turn 2 when former world champion, Fabio Quartararo of Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP was involved in an accident with two other Red Bull KTM Factory Racing riders, Brad Binder and Jack Miller.

The incident prompted a red flag and even though none of the riders involved sustained serious injuries, only Quartararo resumed the race which was restarted with 19 laps remaining.

Shortly after the lights went out for the second time, two-time world champion Bagnaia and Martin battled neck and neck, much to the delight of the enormous crowd.

With 14 laps to go, Bagnaia went full throttle to widen the gap against the Spaniard or better known as ‘The Martinator’.

The 27-year-old then continued to blaze the track and maintained his blistering pace to cross the finishing line in 38 minutes 04.563 seconds (s), leaving Martin trailing by more than three seconds behind (+3.141s).

Bagnaia’s teammate, Enea Bastianini rounded out the rostrum with a +10.484s difference.

The 2024 MotoGP championships title will be decided at the season finale, with Martin currently sitting on top with 485 points while Bagnaia, is second with 461 points.

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.

 The organiser is set to announce the new location of the final race soon.

-- BERNAMA