The favorites, the candidates, those who are going to fight for the big title tomorrow (2:00 p.m., DAZN) they hid, sorry, they were very careful in today’s ‘quali’, in chest, Valenciabefore tens of thousands of spectators (tomorrow it is expected to be packed, with more than 93,000 fans in the Ricardo Tormo layout) and settled for starting from fourth position, the champion Fabio Quartararoa great result for his sad yamahaand from a very discreet eighth place, in the middle of the third row, the leader and main favorite to be crowned the new king of the highest category, the Italian ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia (Ducati).
The protagonists of Saturday were once again the two fastest, the usual ones, the Spanish Jorge Martin (Ducati, 1.29.621 minutes) Y Marc Marquez (Honda, 1.29.826), which together, one after the other, provoked general admiration by achieving the first two positions on the grid. Martín, the one discarded by Ducati to reinforce the official team of the Borgo Panigale signatureshowed again, for the fifth time this year, that he is the fastest one lap “and I just hope I don’t crash on Sunday and fight for victory, because I have the rhythm for it again”.
lap of champion
The Márquez thing is already beginning to be great, since if we count the last four races, those of his return (Aragón was pure warm-up) he is the third driver with the most points in this final sprint, with 53, two less than the Australian Jack Miller (Ducati) and only four less than the one who will probably be champion, bagnaiawhich adds up to 57, which shows that if he had not suffered injuries and the fourth intervention on his arm, humerus and right shoulder, he would have been, yes, the main candidate for the title.
“I’m not going to settle for a little”, commented Márquez in the ‘corralito’, after celebrating second place, dancing on the bike when his extraordinary time was displayed on his control panel. “It was not easy to get that time, because I have a lot of problems when it comes to braking, when it comes to speeding up the braking, my best moment on the track. Just as in Phillip Island I recognized, because that’s how it was, that going to slipstream of ‘Pecco’ helped me a lot, this time going behind Jorge (Martín) has not been a great advantage, although it has helped me a little, because I was not going as close as it was to Bagnaia in Australia & rdquor ;.
The intelligence of ‘Pecco’
It is evident that Márquez loves Cheste and it is crystal clear that Martín wants to win, because by winning him, Bagnaia’s brand mate, his leader will automatically be the new world champion. What also seems clear is that the ‘Devil’, Fabio Quartararo, will start at full speed “because I have no choice but to get into the lead as soon as I can and shoot, not caring what happens behind me and starting from the second row can make things easier, although this is not a track where you can easily overcome your opponents”.
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It goes without saying that the euphoria was not the predominant note in the Ducati Corse workshop, because although it has several Ducati in front, the Bagnaia one comes out far behind and, therefore, despite the Italian leader himself acknowledging “that the head and be smart in the race”, you can’t be careless because you start in the middle of the peloton and, on such a twisted track, any accident can happen in the first few laps.
Let’s not forget that Bagnaia has everything to win because, even if Quartararo wins, which is not easy with so many candidates for victory, including five very fast Ducati that will work for ‘Pecco’, the Italian and World Cup leader will have enough to finish among the 14 first to be crowned the new king and give Ducati its first drivers’ title since 2007 (Casey Stoner).