Bagnaia wins, the title will be decided in Valencia

To win the crown at Sepang, the most “ tailored » for Francesco Bagnaia was to win and hope that his rival fabio quartararo does not appear on the podium. The Italian fulfilled his mission perfectly, but so did the Frenchman, finishing in third place. 

The tension was palpable on the starting grid with on one side Quartararo, 12th on the grid and injured, and on the other Bagnaia, ninth with the firm intention of “ finish the job » as he had declared the day before. 

When the red lights went out, Bagnaia jumped from the third row to climb into second position at the first braking just behind Jorge Martin, author of pole position. Quartararo also made a good start to finish the first lap in fifth place behind Marc Marquez. 

In the lead, Martin quickly worked hard to widen the gap on Bagnaia, who then found himself under threat from Enea Bastianini. Behind, Quartararo also began to put pressure on Marquez. The Frenchman did not take long to take the advantage before setting off in pursuit of the leaders. 

On the seventh lap, Jorge Martin, although comfortably seated at the controls, made a mistake, leaving victory to be decided between Bagnaia and Bastianini. Quartararo was also promoted one position to third. In this configuration, Bagnaia could not pocket the title. 

All eyes then turned to his only hope: Marco Bezzecchi. The rookie had just gotten rid of the group made up of Marquez, Joan Mir and Alex Rins to close his gap on Quartararo. The Italian came back to within two tenths of the world champion before losing contact. Quartararo gave everything in the final laps to get rid of his rival and take cover. He even closed to just over two seconds behind the two leaders, but it was already too late. 

Bastianini also gave up nothing to try to deprive Bagnaia of victory. He took the lead on lap 11, but Bagnaia responded a few laps from the checkered flag. Despite all his efforts, Bastianini, (strangely) struggling in the stretches, had to settle for second place. 

In the championship, Bagnaia is now 23 lengths ahead of Quartararo. In Valencia, Quartararo's only option is to win and hope that Bagnaia finishes higher than 14th place... It might be difficult when we remember that Ducati won the treble last year, but the Hope is still there for a second French title in the premier category. 

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