THE CHANCES OF one party may be close to zero. But this topsy-turvy championship battle will go to the final race after Francesco Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati) failed to wrap it up in Malaysia by the smallest of margins, despite expertly withstanding incessant race-long pressure from Enea Bastianini (Gresini Ducati) to claim an invaluable seventh victory of the year.
For long spells of a tense encounter it appeared Ducati was finally on course to clinch the Rider’s Championship that has eluded it for 15 years. Bagnaia benefited from Jorge Martin’s (Pramac Ducati) crash out of the lead to spend long spells up front, while two places back chief rival Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) came under increasing midrace pressure from Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Ducati) – Bagnaia first with the Frenchman fourth would have inched the Italian over the line.
Yet Quartararo rode like the champion he is to not only hold onto third, but to close in on the leading pair to maintain the slimmest of chances in a fortnight’s time. The odds were stacked against him here. Not only did he start from 12th, a worst qualifying performance of the year, he broke the middle finger on his left hand in a fast fall the previous day. Even still, the 23-year old took the
