MotoGP faces toughest finish since 2017

Since 2017, the MotoGP World Championship has not been settled with the last race, traditionally the Valenciana circuit, Ricardo Tormo de Ceste, and this 2022 is on the way to repeating history. His three riders who are the most regular on the grid, within their respective irregularities, have him arriving at this weekend’s Motegi race 17 points apart until his final four conclude. increase.

Fabio Quartararo has been an unbroken leader since the fifth Grand Prix in Portugal and his cushion, which reached 34 points after the Sachsenring, has improved this weekend to 10 points against Pecco Bagnaia and 17 points against Aleix Espargaro. I witnessed a dramatic decline. His 9-point slab lost by his mistake at Montmelo.

The remaining four races of 2017 were not held in five short weeks, but leader Marc Márquez scored 16 points against Dovizioso and 28 points against Maverick Vinales. At the end of the campaign, Marquez held on to the title with a 37-point lead over ‘Dobi’ and 68 points over ‘Mac’.

Quartararo signed two zeros in two sets of races: Assen on lap five, Aleix Espargaro, who he threw off the track, in front, and in Aragon, the curve for the adrenaline of the first race. Couldn’t draw. In the face of his fear he calculated all possible variations and eventually crashed into the driver in front of him, Marc Márquez.

“It wasn’t the best thing that I crashed in the third corner. The last few races have been tough, but I hope to achieve more in the next few races.”

It was also not a perfect weekend for Pecco Bagnaia, who was already close to winning five in a row, when Italy’s Enea Bastianini decided to avenge his loss at Misano, this time passing him on the final lap. He probably considered a title race to fight ‘The Beast’ a bit more for victory, but in the last five Grands Prix he’s cut the Frenchman by a whopping 81 points. rice field.

“This 10 points is the smallest gap I have had since the season started. We are getting closer.”

“This time it was important not to make a mistake, because Fabio’s accident gave us the opportunity to recover a lot of points. Now the World Cup is much clearer. These 10 points are the competition. It’s the smallest difference I’ve had since the beginning of ‘years. We are getting closer,” said Bagnaiah.

“I think about titles, but not too many. There will only be evening sessions to ensure Friday sessions and time for all materials to arrive in Motegi from Aragon, with a stop on Friday morning in case of delays.

And title confidence continues to drive the irreducible Aleix Espargaro, who lost second place in the World Cup at the hands of Bagnaia in Misano, but he went GO, losing 33 points in France to 17. I witnessed the reduction in points.

“The three of us got to the end very tight and it was great. We are back in the game.”

“I’ve been saying for a long time that I have to be patient. This is MotoGP and anything can happen. On days like today, I remember fifths, sixths and fourths. Be patient, add, be regular, I think that’s the reward,” says the Granollers man.

“Every point is very important. In fact when I saw ‘Quartara Roout’ on the dash, instead of saying ‘I have to relax’, it was quite the opposite. I finished fifth or sixth. Nothing, so I said, “I took a few more risks. Plus, podiums were very important before I flew out on the Tour, so it’s good to have confidence,” he said. explains.

And when asked which of the two he thought was the more rival, he didn’t get wet. Before the race he told me: ‘Perfect, let him come, better, more pressure, more shows’. And it’s paying off. I have always believed it is true that Fabio makes very few mistakes and getting a zero from him here was not what I expected but the championship It’s a bomb. The three of us made it to the end. It’s so tight and so nice.”