Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia is MotoGP world champion for the second time. The Ducati rider from Italy won the season finale in Valencia and successfully defended the title. His only remaining competitor and brand colleague Jorge Martín was eliminated after a collision with Honda driver Marc Márquez, making Bagnaia world champion before the end of the race. Fabio Di Giannantonio and Johann Zarco completed the podium.
Factory driver Bagnaia went into the 20th and final race weekend with a 21-point lead. He came fifth in the sprint race on Saturday. Martín, on the other hand, won and reduced the gap to the Italian to 14 points.
Marquez and Martin collide
On Sunday, after a strong start, Martín moved into second place behind Bagnaia on the first lap and attacked the leader a little later. He sucked his way in the slipstream on the start-finish straight. However, when braking for turn one there was contact and Martín fell far behind. The decision came in lap six: In a duel with Márquez, Martín touched the Spaniard, who crashed spectacularly. Martín drove into the gravel trap and also retired.
On lap 19, Bagnaia took the lead again after KTM rider Jack Miller crashed and took the win. At the beginning of September, Bagnaia was still 66 points ahead of Martín in Barcelona, but the challenger from the Ducati customer team Pramac, who was particularly strong in sprints, came closer and closer and even briefly took the lead in the overall standings in Mandalika (Indonesia) (328:321).
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The decisive factor for Bagnaia’s renewed triumph was his second place last Sunday in Qatar; Martín only finished tenth in the desert due to tire problems and lost (too) much ground. Overall, it is the third title for Bagnaia. In 2018, the Turin native became world champion in the Moto2 championship. In the same year, Martín won the Moto3 crown, his only one to date.
In Moto2, the German Luka Tulovic retired in his last race of the season and ended the year in 24th place overall.
