Moto GP: Aussie Jack Miller has narrowly missed out on a podium finish in Thailand.
Asked ahead of the recent Australia n Grand Prix which of Francesco Bagnaia or Jorge Martin he’d favour to win the title in a head-to-head fight, the KTM rider didn’t hesitate.
But history tells us points deficits coming into the final two rounds of a season usually end in pain for the hunter, and joy for the hunted. Scoreboard pressure is everything … except for the one year when it took one of MotoGP’s most controversial races to flip the accepted script.To be crowned world champion at Sepang this Sunday, Martin needs to expand that 17-point advantage to be 38 points ahead of Bagnaia to render the Valencia finale a fortnight later a dead rubber.
In Portugal in round two, Martin picked up 26 more points than Bagnaia when the Italian clashed with Marc Marquez in the Grand Prix as they fought for third, Bagnaia eventually retiring. In France, a rare mechanical non-finish for Bagnaia in the sprint race, allied with Martin’s Le Mans Grand Prix win the following day,
Of the four championships since 2004 that were still alive with two rounds left but settled in the penultimate round, only one has been in the past decade. Rewind to 2009 and even further to 2004, and Valentino Rossi needed just one match point to convert for titles in both years. After Marquez won in Australia and Rossi finished fourth, Rossi accused Marquez of interfering in the title fight to favour his Spanish compatriot Lorenzo after Rossi and Marquez had become embroiled in several run-ins that season; Marquez’s fierce fighting with Rossi next time out in Malaysia saw the furious Italian force the Spaniard into a crash that left him with a penalty and a back-of-the grid start in Valencia for the final round, and a nearly impossible task to defend a seven-point...
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