Francesco Bagnaia’s championship defence. Jorge Martin’s title challenge, Australian Grand Prix preview, Phillip Island, points, crashes

You didn’t have to be a body language expert to understand just how much this weekend’s Indonesian Grand Prix victory meant to Francesco Bagnaia and his Ducati team.

Bagnaia took the flag and waved to the crowd, to his fellow riders, to the pit lane in jubilation, after completing a comeback from 13th to first, the biggest in MotoGP in almost two decades.

His garage exploded in the kind of celebration that might have fooled you into thinking he’d just won the championship.

Maybe he had just done it.

Watch all the 2023 MotoGP World Championship practices, qualifying and races live and ad-free during the races on Kayo. Sign up now and start streaming instantly >

The victory over title rival Jorge Martin, who crashed out for the title, reversed what had become a seven-point deficit Saturday night into an 18-point lead.

Clearly, that margin alone isn’t enough to take out the trophy burner with five rounds remaining and with 185 points still up for grabs.

But after more than a month of Martin hemorrhaging points – after watching Martin topple the championship by 73 points following his injury-causing crash at Barcelona – Bagnaia finally stemmed the bleeding.

He did so with a statement.

What started as a really tough weekend ended with a championship caliber performance.

At the start of the season, Bagnaia spoke of difficulties when the Ducati bike was at the absolute limit of its performance. Again this weekend he lamented that with the soft tires in time trial mode he lacked the confidence to get the most out of his machine.

He was eliminated from Q1 in 13th, and his problems carried over into the sprint, where eighth place was the most he could muster.

But history was not meant to repeat itself 24 hours later. A determined and aggressive race, surgically eliminating his rivals one by one, put him perfectly placed to capitalize when Jorge Martin – who was riding on the limit, having opened up a gap of three seconds – made an unforced error and crashed out of the race. .

The result was effectively a 30-point turnaround in a single afternoon – from Martin increasing his points gap by five points to cost himself the full 25 points to the triumphant Bagnaia.

Spot these wild celebrations.

TONIC FOR A SICK TITLE CHALLENGE

“It’s a big moment for us,” Bagnaia said. “It has absolutely been very, very important.

“This victory means a lot. This meant that we were very competitive again – and I missed that a little, because every time [since the Barcelona crash] I was having a little trouble.

“Repeating that performance was very, very important. Winning is always very important.

“At a time when Jorge was absent, the main thing was to take as many points as possible, and we did that.

“After the accident in Barcelona, ​​it was not an easy period. Winning today gives us a lot of motivation.

It’s an interesting insight into Bagnaia’s state of mind over the past month. Although he only missed Sunday’s race in Barcelona, ​​during which he crashed and seriously injured his leg, his subsequent performances have more closely resembled battles for survival, to break the barrier of pain and score points rather than returning to normal programming.

But his previous performances on the field did not return once the bruises faded. Martin was on the verge of tears, and Bagnaia was struggling to catch up. He talked a lot about braking issues, but the speed was missing even after he said they had been fixed.

He needed a result like this to prove to himself and everyone else that he hadn’t lost his mind – to prove that he could still go through with it.

“It’s a similar feeling to Malaysia last year,” he said, recalling the ninth-to-first victory at Sepang that gave him an almost unassailable advantage over title rival Fabio Quartararo . “I did my best in both cases, so I’m very, very, very happy.

“I know perfectly well that Jorge is very fast, but we deserved this victory. We needed this victory to feel this kind of feeling after the Barcelona crash.

“It wasn’t an easy time, but finally winning again definitely gives us a lot of motivation.”

BUT MARTIN IS NOT DISTURBED

That said, it is clear that Bagnaia inherited this victory. His race on Sunday was flawless, but he was fortunate to leave Indonesia with his championship lead not only intact but strengthened.

Martin lost the title lead as much – perhaps more – as Bagnaia regained it.

The Spaniard has been in great form since Bagnaia crashed out at Barcelona. Since finishing third that Sunday, he has collected four sprint victories, two Grand Prix victories and two more podiums, as well as a pair of poles, inflicting almost maximum damage on his rival.

Indonesia is poised to follow the same path. Although he qualified sixth, he was unstoppable on his way to victory in the sprint, and an absurdly strong start on Sunday put him in the lead by the end of the first lap, from where he built a buffer of three seconds – before everything suddenly fell apart. .

“It’s definitely been a great ride so far,” he said. “I was a little wide at turn 10 and I thought it was a little dirty. I was right and at the next corner I fell.

“It was a shame because it was the only mistake I made in the 12 or 13 laps.”

But far from the sullen man Martin can sometimes be in such situations, he was almost buoyed by the performance despite not scoring.

“I’m happy to be the fastest,” he said. “Today, no one was at my pace.

“I’m happy we have the speed, and I hope we can demonstrate that at Phillip Island.”

He suggested that statistically his podium form was always likely to end at some point rather than propel him to the end of the season.

“It’s racing, it can happen,” he said. “We still have 10 races left [with sprints]so it’s still a long way to go.

“If it was the penultimate race I might think it’s a disaster, but there’s still a long way to go.”

MOTOGP GETS ITS TITLE SHOWDOWN

Bagnaia is back, but Martin will not be convinced to return to his bottle. With five rounds remaining, the MotoGP status quo is a neck-and-neck fight between Ducati’s title partners.

Much of the story in recent races, including this past weekend at Mandalika, is that Bagnaia must be the man to answer. He is the Ducati factory rider and reigning champion. Back on top for the title, it should be his to lose.

“The pressure is on Pecco,” Martin said after winning the sprint, something he emphasized repeatedly as he closed the points gap. “I will keep the same mentality.”

It’s a position supported by six-time champion Marc Márquez.

“If I need to bet on anyone, I’ll bet on Jorge,” he said. Sports car. “He has no pressure. He is on a factory bike but not on the factory team. He is not defending the title.

“If he wins the championship, it’s incredible. If he finishes second everything will be fine because the normal thing is for Pecco to win.

“Now Pecco is suffering from what [it] East [like] defend a title, to the extent that it is sometimes more difficult to defend a title than to win.

Bagnaia’s post-race celebration – straining his ear as if to listen to those who doubted him – was widely interpreted as being directed at his paddock detractors, Martin and Márquez in particular, who considered him to have withered under the pressure.

“It’s just because a lot of times people talk too much,” he said. “It is better to wait, see the result and then speak.

“It wasn’t to anyone but to people who always talk too much beforehand. It’s better to wait until the end of the season before you start talking. It was for these people.

Jorge Lorenzo, three-time champion, however, thinks that Bagnaia’s return serve risks biting him back.

“These gestures are not good,” he told DAZN. “Don’t make the beast angry.

” It is not finished. Keep your enemy calm, don’t anger him.

AUSTRALIA WILL SET THE STAGE

MotoGP may be decamping from tropical Lombok to cold Victoria, but the temperature in the paddock will only rise for the rest of the season.

There are five rounds left. With only a week’s break between Thailand and Malaysia, there will be no leaking under the pressure of the championship battle.

The new status quo makes Australia the first weekend of a contested five-grand prix shootout.

The result at Phillip Island will set the tone.

Martin has been cool and serene since his accident. He will no doubt be frustrated, but a dominant weekend – or at least dominance over Bagnaia – will go a long way in folding the title fight around him. Win races and the points take care of themselves.

Bagnaia, on the other hand, feels like he finally has some momentum. A double victory in the Netherlands would not be enough to get his hands on the trophy, but it would leave him with one more victory before he could count the points. A little authority wielded by the reigning champion could go a long way.

But both will be perfectly aware that big mistakes will count as much as big results.

Bagnaia has had higher scores on average for each finish this season than Martin, but he has also had more non-finishes. He crashed four times in Grand Prix, not counting his strangely off performance in the wet sprint at Silverstone.

Martin recorded two non-scores on Sunday in the first three rounds, but enjoyed a flawless record until his crash in Indonesia.

That’s worth keeping in mind this weekend given that Phillip Island hasn’t been a particularly happy place for Ducati. It’s been 13 years since a Desmosedici last stood on the podium – at the hands of Casey Stoner in 2010 – with quick sweeps tending to put more bikes in play.

Sure, Ducati has taken a big step forward this year and no longer has any real relative weaknesses, but the strengths of other machines could have Bagnaia and Martin fighting more than against each other or their Bologna comrades this weekend, adding even more danger to a crucial match. race.

That would be great for Bagnaia, who doesn’t need to fight for maximum points as long as he can keep his rival on a short leash. Martin, however, doesn’t have much time to waste in reducing his deficit.

It’s so delicately set for the race to the final in Valencia for what could be a title fight for the ages.