Bagnaia wins Barcelona MotoGP sprint to take season to final race
The Peninsula
Barcelona: Francesco Bagnaia produced a commanding performance to win Saturday s sprint at the Barcelona MotoGP, ensuring that the battle for the worl...
Barcelona: Francesco Bagnaia produced a commanding performance to win Saturday's sprint at the Barcelona MotoGP, ensuring that the battle for the world championship title would go to the last race of the season.
Championship leader Jorge Martin finished third behind Bagnaia's Ducati-Lenovo teammate Enea Bastianini and will take a reduced 19-point lead into Sunday's grand prix.
Bagnaia arrived in Barcelona with a 24-point deficit and knowing that he effectively needed to win both the sprint and the grand prix to have any chance of denying Martin a first world title.
The Italian has already won 10 of 19 grands prix this season but his lack of consistency has let him down.
But having won in Malaysia a fortnight ago he was again in imperious form as he set the pace in qualifying to take pole for both the sprint and the grand prix.