Francesco Bagnaia, a two-time champion, has been doing really well this year on his new GP24 bike. But in the shorter Saturday races, he’s been having some trouble turning his speed into good results. The leader in the championship, Jorge Martin, has been doing exceptionally well in these sprint races. But Bagnaia hasn’t managed to get on the podium in any of them this year.
What’s worse, in the last three sprint races, he hasn’t been able to finish at all. This means he’s not getting the points he needs to compete with Martin, who has built up a big lead in the standings. At Jerez, Bagnaia had some bad luck with the track conditions. Then at Le Mans, there was a problem with his bike after he crashed in qualifying. And in Barcelona, he crashed on the last lap while leading the race.
Even though Bagnaia wants to keep sprint races in MotoGP, he knows he needs to do better to get more points for the championship. He’s been competitive in the sprints this year, but the crashes and bike issues are costing him a lot of points. Winning races on Sundays is great, but he’s tired of losing points on Saturdays.
Bagnaia believes in himself, though. Even when he has a bad Saturday, he stays confident in his abilities. He knows he can fight for wins and top positions if everything goes well on Sunday. So, even if he struggles on Saturday, he’s always ready to come back strong on race day.
Looking at the first six races, Bagnaia has scored three more points than Martin on Sundays. But in the sprint races, he’s only managed to get 14 points, while Martin has gotten a lot more, 56 points, thanks to his three wins.
