Francesco Bagnaia celebrates 'incredible' Malaysia victory as Jorge Martin looks ahead to final 'challenge' in Spain
Updated 03/11/2024 at 11:56 GMT
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Current MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia won his 10th Grand Prix of the season, in Malaysia on Sunday. The victory kept his hopes of retaining his title alive going into the final race of the season later this month, in Spain. Second place went to his title rival Jorge Martin, the winner of Saturday's sprint race, and both riders looked ahead to the decider.
‘Fierce, hard-fought win’ at Malaysia GP helps Bagnaia keep title dreams alive
Video credit: TNT Sports
Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin looked ahead to the final race weekend after the current world champion won the Malaysia MotoGP on Sunday.
Saturday’s sprint race saw the Italian crash out as Martin booked another win, but in the full-length event, Martin was second and Bagnaia took maximum points.
That means the world championship will go to the wire, to be decided by results in Spain in the last round of the 2024 season.
Bagnaia has generally performed better in longer races than in the sprint editions this season, and in sweltering conditions on Sunday, he told TNT Sports that the weather was the least of his problems given Martin’s efforts.
"Managing the heat was the easiest part today honestly," Bagnaia said.
"Jorge was very aggressive, he knew he needed to leave me behind, but our pace was too good.
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‘Wow, Bagnaia is brave!’ – Exciting start in Malaysia as Italian goes ‘toe to toe’ with Martin
Video credit: TNT Sports
"Like always in the race on Sunday, I can attack and be more aggressive.
"We just need to understand why on Saturdays I am struggling more to do the same.
"It's the 10th victory of the season, we are doing an incredible job, we just have to improve a bit on Saturdays."
Martin respected the challenge that the current champion had laid down in recent weeks, and was content with his second-place finish.
He said: "Thanks to Pecco, he's making this challenge more difficult.
"I wanted to win, and I wanted to be in the lead, but for sure Pecco had the strategy.
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‘Too risky’ – Made no sense for Martin ‘to keep pushing’ Bagnaia, says MotoGP leader
Video credit: TNT Sports
"I completely understood his strategy, he was aggressive, and I was also.
"We were making a good show for the first few laps but as soon as he overtook me it was impossible to fight.
"At the end I tried again to put some pressure, but I almost crashed, so I think getting eight points from this is unbelievable.”
- Valencia GP cancelled as 2024 season finale due to severe flooding
- Bagnaia recovers from Sprint crash to claim Malaysia Grand Prix victory
With the season-ending finale still to come, the Spaniard looked forward to the task ahead.
"Going to the final race will be a challenge, so let's try to do the best," he added.
The race weekend in Spain begins on November 15, with the concluding race on November 17.
Watch the 2024 MotoGP season live on TNT Sports and discovery+
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