BURIRAM: Ducati’s Enea Bastianini won the Thai MotoGP sprint race on Saturday with the two world title rivals Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia second and third respectively.

Ducati Pramac’s Martin extended his championship lead over Bagnaia by two points to 22, ahead of the grand prix at Buriram on Sunday.

“I was not used to this heat, it was really tough,” said Spain’s Martin, who is attempting to win the world title for the first time.

“But I was riding well, I was competitive. Tomorrow will be a really difficult race, so I need to be focused.”

Two-time defending world champion Bagnaia started on pole but a dramatic opening saw the lead change hands and in the shake-up team-mate Bastianini emerged out in front.

In sweltering conditions, Martin started in third and at one point dropped to sixth, but recovered to nip in front of Italy’s Bagnaia on lap seven.

The Italian Bastianini was now comfortable out front and extended his lead over Martin, with Bagnaia on his rival’s heels in third but not close enough to make a move.

Fourth was six-time world champion Marc Marquez, who won in Australia last time out, followed by his brother Alex.

Another 25 points are up for grabs in Sunday’s grand prix and Bagnaia has little room for error with just two more race weekends after this one.

“We luckily lost just two points and tomorrow we must try to close this gap because it’s true that Jorge can finish in all the [remaining] races second and still be champion,” said Bagnaia. “We have to focus on ourselves and be more perfect.”

The penultimate race weekend of the season is in Malaysia next weekend, ahead of the season finale in Valencia in mid-November.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2024