Francesco Bagnaia says 14-point MotoGP lead over Jorge Martin is 'not enough' ahead of Qatar GP

Francesco Bagnaia said he was “satisfied” with his efforts at the Malaysian Grand Prix but doesn’t feel his 14-point MotoGP championship lead over Jorge Martin is “enough”.

Bagnaia added one point to his lead over the weekend as he came third in both the sprint race and the main race.

Martin was second in the sprint but finished fourth on Sunday, behind Martin, Alex Marquez and winner Enea Bastianini.

The results set up a close finish to the season with just two more race weekends in Qatar and Valencia.

Reflecting on his showing in Malaysia, Bagnaia is quoted as saying by Motorsport Week: “I’m satisfied with the work, but not completely the result because I prefer to be more in front.

"But we have to be happy because we ended the weekend a point further ahead than we started and the feeling was back.

“I was able to push at the start [of the weekend] and get pole position for the first time since Barcelona, and everything went well apart from yesterday in the sprint where I had an issue with chattering from the front. I had a great feeling with the bike, so I’m very happy overall.

“It will be important to open the gap more because 14 points of a lead is good, but not enough so it’ll be important to do a good weekend.

“I’m glad that Enea is performing well again, and I’m looking forward to going to Qatar as it is a good track for us.”

Bagnaia finished well clear of Martin in Sunday’s race as he extended his championship lead.

However, he wasn’t able to challenge for the win and said he had a “strange feeling under braking”.

“Today was quite good and the battle with Jorge was fun, and we managed to open up the gap to him.

“I did everything to try and close the gap to the front guys, but I had a strange feeling with the front under braking due to a lot of movement.

“It maybe was the temperature, it was risky to push more so I did everything I could to close on the front guys, and this is the result.

“Considering the pace we had after the [Martin] battle, we were more competitive than him today so this is important after many races [where he was faster].”

The Qatar MotoGP is on the weekend of November 17 and will be shown live on TNT Sports.

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