Francesco Bagnaia arrives at the Valencia MotoGP Grand Prix leading the championship by 21 points, whereas last year he had a 23-point advantage. The Ducati rider is in a better position to become champion again, with his only rival being Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati).
At the press conference, the defending champion denied being in a situation similar to last year’s and emphasized the importance of being competitive from the first free practice session: ‘Honestly, two points less than the last year, but 12 more to gain. So for sure it’s a different situation with 37 points available every weekend. Let’s see. It will be very important to start well tomorrow, have a good feeling from the FP1 and then in the practice already pushing to be in the top ten. But I’m quite sure that this track, which was resurfaced, could be very good for us’.
Even though two fifth places would be enough to secure the title, Bagnaia refuses to play defensively: ‘This is a fact that I like. But I will do the maximum. For sure tomorrow will be very important to understand everything and then on Saturday, attack. For sure will very important to be competitive, try to win the Sprint race and then on Saturday afternoon decide the strategy for Sunday’s race. But the maximum goal will be to start from the first row and then push in the Sprint race to have a possibility to win’.