The odds were heavily stacked in his favour, but rather than them lightening his load, Bagnaia felt their full weight for three days at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
There wasn’t a single moment of the Valencia Grand Prix weekend at which the presumptive world champion looked truly comfortable. He did his best to maintain an air of calm, but his on-track performance was a glimpse of the roiling turmoil beneath the surface.
He only just scraped through free practice 0.059 ahead of the Q2 cut-off time.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSFabio Quartararo has praised title leader Francesco Bagnaia for closing the 91-point gap between them despite lamenting his Yamaha’s lack of pace leaving him fighting with one hand behind his back.
Quartararo starts the title-deciding Valencia Grand Prix this weekend with a 23-point deficit and an extremely narrow path to a second world championship.
The Frenchman has been vociferous about Yamaha’s shortcomings this year despite a bright start to the season that propelled him to an early points lead.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSIt all comes down to this.
After 19 races, four changes to the championship lead and an unprecedented fightback, just Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo remain in contention for the 2022 MotoGP title with one race remaining.
Either winner will write an improbable chapter in motorcycling history.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSFrancesco Bagnaia was so close to the MotoGP championship trophy that he could have seen his own reflection in the solid silver plaques bearing the names of the riders he hopes to emulate at this weekend’s Valencia Grand Prix.
He had been placed alongside the glittering prize in a photo shoot with title rival Fabio Quartararo, who he leads in the standings by an almost unassailable 23 points.
But despite being closer to the trophy than he’s ever been before, he refused to touch it.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSFrancesco Bagnaia is on the cusp of doing the unthinkable.
Just nine rounds ago the man christened as Bologna’s best hope was watching his bike slide through the gravel at the Sachsenring as reigning champion Fabio Quartararo powered up the road and to eventual victory.
His fourth crash of the year put him a staggering 91 points off the title lead. No rider has ever come back from such a margin.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSFabio Quartararo has been cursed by his own pre-season prophecy of non-competitiveness on his outgunned Yamaha M1.
Only a brief spell of success in the middle of the year threatened to disprove his prediction from way back during pre-season testing. Since the midseason he’s been forced to helplessly watch on as other riders chipped away at the points lead he’d toiled so hard for.
This weekend comes his final reckoning.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTS