BARCELONA: Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia extended the MotoGP title race into the final day of the season when the reigning champion won the sprint at the Solidarity Grand Prix on Saturday while championship leader Jorge Martin finished third.

Martin held a 24-point lead going into the final grand prix but his advantage was cut to 19 points ahead of Sunday’s race, where polesitter Bagnaia can still clinch a third straight MotoGP riders championship.

Martin had given Bagnaia chase for several laps but Ducati’s Enea Bastianini made a clean overtake on the final lap which forced the Pramac Racing rider to settle for third.

The championship will now be decided in the final race for a third consecutive season.

“Job done for today, but for tomorrow we need to repeat what we did. I think that [doing] more than this is impossible,” Bagnaia said. “Jorge again did a fantastic job, so it’s fantastic that it’s like this. But let’s see tomorrow. For today, I’m very happy.”

The race was due to take place in Valencia but had to be moved after the region suffered its worst floods in a generation which have killed more than 220 people.

The race was switched to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and has been dubbed the Solidarity GP to show support for the people of Valencia.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2024