Showdown in the MotoGP
Jorge Martin “nervous”, Bagnaia hopes for a miracle
Just like last year, this weekend's motorcycle world championship finale in Spain will see a showdown between Ducati riders Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia for the MotoGP crown. However, the signs were reversed: This time, the Spaniard Martin has a comfortable 24-point lead over the Italian defending champion and is therefore on the verge of his first world championship title. Due to the flood disaster, the final Grand Prix will not be held in Valencia this year, but in Barcelona.
While Martin lost out to Bagnaia last year, the 26-year-old could be crowned champion on Saturday. Should he score two points more than his opponent in the sprint race, he would be unbeatable with 26 points in Sunday's GP (2 p.m.) in front of his home crowd. "I'm nervous, but I always am before a race weekend," explained Martin. He wants to think from day to day and not about what he could achieve.
Martin wants to block out World Championship noise
"I'm trying to concentrate on my job. The world championship noise will be there all the time, but I will try not to hear it," said the world championship leader ahead of his last race weekend as a Ducati rider. Martin, who will line up for Aprilia next year, could become the first rider from a satellite team to take the crown in the modern MotoGP era (since 2002).
"We'll see if that's enough"
Bagnaia, meanwhile, can use all the help he can get to add a third consecutive world title to his two. "It will be difficult to catch up. A lot of special things have to happen. I want to win the sprint and the race, and then we'll see if that's enough," said the 27-year-old, who will have to hope for a serious mistake from his rival. Although Bagnaia can point to ten GP victories this year, the Italian has also often retired.
The MotoGP circus was already a guest at the Circuit de Catalunya at the end of May, when Bagnaia won the race ahead of Martin, but crashed in the sprint the day before. Due to the postponement caused by the disaster after storms around Valencia claimed numerous lives, the showdown in Barcelona is being held as a solidarity Grand Prix.
Behind four Ducati riders, two KTM riders are still in contention to be "best of the rest" in the overall standings in Barcelona. In fifth place, MotoGP rookie Pedro Acosta is three points ahead of South African Brad Binder, who will form the factory duo for the team from Mattighofen next year. The Spaniard Acosta - who has achieved five GP podiums this year (twice second, three times third) and four more in the sprints, while Binder only succeeded at the start of the season in Qatar (second in both the sprint and race) - can already look back on a strong debut season in the premier class of motorcycle racing.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Kommentare
Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser,
die Kommentarfunktion steht Ihnen ab 6 Uhr wieder wie gewohnt zur Verfügung.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
das krone.at-Team
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.