Francesco Bagnaia says he was aware it was going to be a tough task to win the 2024 MotoGP title after he crashed out of the sprint race for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia was running second behind Pramac rival Jorge Martin in the short-distance race at Sepang when he dumped his GP24 at the tricky uphill Turn 9, giving away important points during a crucial stage of the championship.
Bagnaia bounced back from that error to win the main race in Malaysia and complete a double win in the Barcelona finale, but it wasn’t enough to overturn a 29-point deficit to eventual champion Martin.
Although Bagnaia has publicly maintained that he still had a real shot at winning this year’s title, he admitted after his eventual defeat in Barcelona that he knew that his hopes of defending his crown were in fact very slim.
“I already accepted that after my sprint race in Malaysia, I understood that it was tough and difficult to win the championship,” he said.
“[Overcoming] 29 points was [going to be] quite tough but I just tried to do the maximum, winning all the races remaining. It was the maximum I could do but Jorge did a better job.
“In terms of consistency, he was better. I think he finished like 17 or 18 times second during the season so it is something unbelievable and from our side, we just had a bit of bad luck.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“I also made some mistakes, so it’s difficult to imagine winning a title with eight zeros.
“We also beat the number of points compared to last season with eight zeros [498 vs 467].
“So I think we did a very good job and we almost dominated the races in terms of victories but this wasn’t enough and for next year I will have to learn from my season, learn from some situation that happened this season.”
Although Bagnaia won 11 grands prix over the season, putting him among some of the all-time greats in motorcycle racing, his campaign was also marred by misfortune and unforced errors.
Among other mistakes, Bagnaia crashed out of the lead of the sprint race in the Catalan Grand Prix in May and also gave away a likely podium finish in the Emilia Grand Prix.
But the error in the penultimate round Sepang stings the most for him, given the circumstances of the crash and the impact it had on his title hopes.
“In terms of mistakes I think the one in Misano was one of the worst because I was easily finishing third,” he said.
“The most difficult to accept is the one in Malaysia honestly because I wasn’t doing anything wrong.
“I entered the corner slower and maybe that was the reason for the crash. This one is the most difficult to accept.”