Australian Grand Prix : Since Fabio Quartararo’s collision at the Sachsenring, Francesco Bagnaia of the Ducati Lenovo team has made up 105 points to take the lead in the MotoGPTM World Championship going into the Animoca Brands Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. As of the most recent race, Pecco holds a 14-point lead in the Championship standings, having come from 91 points behind the then-leader. His streak of four consecutive victories and three podium finishes in the past four races began when he was in last place. There are still four riders with a chance to win the championship in three weeks in Valencia, so keep reading to get the entire picture.
Goal for Bagnaia
Only two points separated Quartararo and Bagnaia when they landed in Australia, so the Ducati rider still had a chance to pass the Yamaha pilot and win the championship. When ‘El Diablo’ went off the track at Miller Corner on Lap 4, the likelihood of that occurring increased, and when Quartararo crashed out at Southern Loop on Lap 11, it was all but certain.
In his previous four races, the Frenchman has scored three “zeroes,” and he hasn’t finished on the podium in five races. Bagnaia finished in third place, but things might have been much worse. He had been in the lead at the start of the penultimate lap around Phillip Island before being passed by Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team).
It’s now just a 14-point disadvantage rather than a 23-point one. The fact that the gap between first and second position in both Grands Prix is just five points is intriguing, since it implies that Quartararo’s Championship ambitions are out of his hands even if he wins in Malaysia and Valencia.
In reality, if Bagnaia finishes second and third in the remaining two races, he will be certain to win the championship because even if Quartararo wins both, the two of them would be equal on points, and the tiebreaker will be determined by the number of victories: six for FB63 and five for FQ20. So, from now on, is Pecco going to play the odds, or will he go for broke?
Australian Grand Prix
There are four remaining hunters.
Even though Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) was disappointed with his ninth-place result in Australia, the seven points he earned still put him in a theoretical position to win the championship. However, the Spaniard is now 27 points, or more than a full race, behind Bagnaia and will need to battle tooth and nail to improve his standing. Keeping his Championship ambitions alive will be Espargaro’s primary objective in Malaysia, so he’ll need to catch up to the leading Ducati rider by at least three points. After that, anything may happen in Valencia.
The outlook isn’t great for Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing MotoGPTM). With just 50 points left to play for this season, the Italian has a huge mountain to climb in order to catch up to his countryman.
Since ‘La Bestia’s’ rival, ‘Jack Miller,’ of the Ducati Lenovo Team, was forced to withdraw from the Australian GP after being knocked out by Alex Marquez of the LCR Honda Castrol, ‘La Bestia’ is now the only surviving competitor. Miller can no longer overtake Bagnaia, but he still has a mathematical chance of coming in second place in the Championship; wouldn’t that be a fitting way to round up his time in the red?
So, at the Sepang International Circuit, a rider whose season-long dreams seemed doomed only eight races ago has secured the first MotoGPTM’match point’ of the year. On October 21-23, watch the PETRONAS Grand Prix of Malaysia.
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