Not Afraid, Pecco Bagnaia Actually Has A Competition Value With Jorge Martin So It's Very Interesting

Francesco Bagnaia (right) and Jorge Martin compete for the 2023 MotoGP title. (Photo: Twitter/@MotoGP)

JAKARTA - The competition for the 2023 MotoGP title involves two Ducati riders, namely Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo) and Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati).

Bagnaia currently still occupies the top position of the standings by collecting 319 points. Meanwhile, Martin is only three points adrift.

Bagnaia admitted that he was not worried about Martin's threat that had the opportunity to shift his position. Instead, he considered the competition to be very interesting.

"Now, with the three points between me and Jorge, this is interesting, I also like it because I think this can be a good competition between us," said Bagnaia.

Bagnaia could not break Martin's perfect dominance in Japan's MotoGP at the Motegi Circuit last weekend. Martin steadily won pole positions, won sprints, and came out as the fastest in the main race.

In the main race, Bagnaia was right behind him with a narrow time difference of only 1.413 seconds. The racer who is familiarly called Pecco also admitted that racing in Japan was very challenging and risky, following the rain that flushed the track all day.

"The race was good but very risky... Before the interruption (repair, due to bad weather), I closed the distance to Jorge, but then I made some mistakes and almost lost the lead position, and I went back to the same gap as before," he said.

"After all, we have to be happy with this result. We know very well how risky the race on street circuits is with wet conditions like this, and finishing second is a good result," he added.