Francesco Bagnaia enters last four MotoGP rounds with confidence
Francesco Bagnaia enters the MotoGP Thai Grand Prix with a 27-point lead over Jorge Martin and confidence gained by heading to a track that has heavily contributed to his two championships.
At this stage of the season in 2022, Bagnaia was fully engaged in a come-from-behind charge on Fabio Quartararo and his sixth podium in seven rounds at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand put his fate in his hands. Entering that round 18 points out of first, Bagnaia closed to within two of the leader as Quartararo struggled through several rounds. Bagnaia made up the deficit the following week in Australia with another podium and never relinquished it.
In 2018, Bagnaia won the Moto2 race in Thailand on his way to winning that championship.
"I'm very happy to move onto a circuit where I'm very fast," Bagnaia said at MotoGP.com following last week's second-place finish in Australia. "It's positive for us, like Malaysia. The next grands prix are good for me because last year I was struggling here, I was struggling in Japan and in Mandalika, so going to a track where last year I was competitive is great and I'm very looking forward to riding there."
The defending champion has every right to express confidence. But things looked different just six rounds ago.
A violent Lap 1 crash in the Catalan Grand Prix sent him to the hospital after Brad Bender ran over Bagnaia's legs when that rider had no place to go. Bagnaia walked out of the hospital on a pair of crutches a few hours later. An off week between the Catalan and San Remini Grands Prix gave him a chance to recover. Bagnaia finished third at San Remini, but retired from the following round in India.
Martin saw an opportunity and was capitalizing. He podiumed in the Catalan GP with a third-place finish, won at San Remini and was second in India. He even managed to gain five points on Bagnaia at Japan, winning that race with Bagnaia second.
Martin gave up all of his ground the following week with a retirement in the Indonesian GP. Last week, he finished three positions behind Bagnaia in fifth.
Four rounds remain with this week's Thai GP followed by Malaysia, Qatar and Valencia. Bagnaia won the 2022 Malaysian GP and needed only a safe run at Valencia to secure his first MotoGP title.
Martin still has hope. Last year, Qatar was held at the beginning of the season with Bagnaia coming out of the gates slowly. He failed to finish the 2022 Qatar GP.
Marco Bezzecchi currently sits third in the standings, 73 points in arrears, to give Ducati the top three spots in the title hunt.
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