“I have nothing to lose: we have to try to win both races,” Jorge Martín says before his last opportunity to try to take over the MotoGP throne for which Pecco Bagnaia is also competing this weekend in Cheste (València).
At the Ricardo Tormo circuit, the final MotoGP duel is played in two rounds, with the Madrid rider 21 points behind the Italian, and with the last 37 at stake, the 12 of today's Sprint race, and the 25 of tomorrow in the long test. The driver from San Sebastián de los Reyes has no other options than to play it all or nothing: he has to win both races and put pressure on his opponent to fail. Hence, yesterday, in the first rehearsals, the war of nerves broke out between the applicants.
“First, you have to win the Sprint,” Martín, the lord of Saturdays, marked the path (8 victories out of the 19 short races contested). But it wasn't entirely true... The first thing was to make Bagnaia nervous from the first day of training, to make the Italian feel the pressure on his neck until it suffocated him, so that he would make a mistake and begin to experience vertigo, suffocation. of the height, the oppression of the decisive hour.
The Madrid native did it in a Practice – the pre-qualifying session that establishes the positions for Q1 and Q2 – in which sparks flew. Martín closely marked the Italian glued to his wheel, he sought to test the leader's nerves and he succeeded: Pecco will have to go through the Q1 play-off today (10:50 a.m.) to be able to get into the top 12 and qualify for a position ahead on both starting grids, the Sprint (3:00 p.m.) and the long race (Sunday, 3:00 p.m.).
The war of nerves between the two title contenders broke out in the last five minutes of the second session. Martín was running with the fourth time, without risk of not entering the top 10, but Bagnaia suffered and did not go beyond 14th place, more than 8 tenths behind the first, Maverick Viñales. The Italian made a mistake, going long through the escape, with Martín so involved in the role of pursuer that he also went behind him, tracing the leader's mistake. It was the comical image of the day.
Although the most ridiculous situation, in this war of nerves, was experienced when the two drivers left their respective pits after a red flag. Davide Tardozzi, the sixty-year-old Ducati team manager (64), stood in the way of Martín to hinder his exit onto the track and prevent the Madrid native from getting close to Bagnaia's wheel. A trick that was of no use to him, and that portrayed him through his bad arts, at his age and with his position...
In the last minute of training the tension grew. Martín increased his pressure on the Italian's wheel, to force the error and prevent his time from improving, and Pecco was left behind in 15th place, while Jorge improved his time and moved up to second place, 3 tenths behind Maverick Viñales, so it is within Q2.
“It was a marking of Pecco, more than anything to know how he is doing, his strengths and weaknesses... They have been moments of tension because it is not an image that I like to give. I've never been a wheel-hunting rider. For that part I don't like it, I'm not happy because it's not fair, but, on the other hand, a little show, strategies, a little psychological game is also good... I think Pecco has gotten a little nervous. ..”, Martín justified his performance, who today will not have the wear and tear or the risk of going through Q1, like Pecco.
It will not be easy for the MotoGP leader to enter among the 12 who will play for pole position (at 11:15 a.m.) since in Q1 he will meet tough fighters like his teammate Bastianini, Àlex Márquez, Quartararo or Marini. If he does not achieve one of the first two positions, Bagnaia would be relegated to starting beyond 12th place, which would complicate the race for the Sprint and would make his mathematical options of becoming champion this Saturday, without the need for Sunday, very difficult. .
The Italian will be proclaimed two-time champion if he adds 4 more points to Martín, which he would achieve, for example, by winning the Sprint and the Madrid native placing third or worse.
For Jorge, his options almost necessarily involve a double (37 points), as he has already achieved four times (Sachsenring, Misano, Motegi and Thailand). He also knows that he could cut more than 21 points from Bagnaia: he already did it in Le Mans (25) and in India (23). The miracle is difficult, but not impossible.
