Francesco Bagnaia waited for Jorge Martin’s lane limit penalty in Thai sprint

Francesco Bagnaia says he expected Jorge Martin to receive a track limit penalty in the MotoGP Thai Grand Prix sprint, believing the Pramac rider ran off four times.

Martin was forced to recover from fifth on the opening lap after an ambitious attempt to take the lead from poleman Bagnaia saw him run wide at Turn 1.

The Pramac driver eventually moved up to second after passing Bagnaia with a brave move up the inside of Turn 7 on lap seven, but then ran into the green painted area beyond the kerb.

This brought Martin a lane restriction caution, while a second violation followed on lap nine.

Bagnaia, who has dropped two points to Martin in the standings to extend his deficit to 22, expected his rival to be penalized as he counted four fouls.

But on the lap analysis sheets from Dorna Sports, Martin was officially recorded only for exceeding the track limits twice. Doing so three times gives a rider a long lap penalty.

“Honestly, I thought so and I started counting because as soon as I saw two, I said, ‘Ok, one more is a penalty,’ and I counted two more,” Bagnaia told media, including Crash.net, on Saturday.

“But maybe I counted wrong, because I didn’t see anything. So maybe I was wrong. But the pace today was so intense that it was tough to stay on the corner line.

However, Bagnaia defended Martin, noting that the pace was such in the sprint that it was easy to run wide.

“Honestly, we were at an unbelievable pace,” he added.

“Right now, when you’re driving, it’s hard to have a chance to overtake. Our pace was so strong that he touched the green four times. This is because the pace was incredible.”

Martin beating Bagnaia to second means the former can finish second in every race now until the end of the season and still win the championship.

Commenting on his sprint, Bagnaia knew his hopes of victory were gone after the first few laps as he was not as strong in braking as he was on Saturday morning when he jumped to pole.

“It was more gone after two, three laps, to understand that my feeling was not perfect like it was this morning,” he explained.

“I struggled a lot to be competitive on the brakes. My fastest sector of the weekend was sector one, sector three. And today I lost there.

“So we have to analyze this afternoon on the grid. Fortunately we only dropped two points and tomorrow we just have to try to close this gap because it’s true that Jorge can finish second in every race and still be champion.

“But I’m absolutely sure he won’t finish every other race: he can win, finish fifth, crash. So it depends a lot.

“But we have to focus more on our results and be perfect because today I thought I would be more competitive, and then I struggled in the race.”

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Francesco Bagnaia waited for Jorge Martin’s lane limit penalty in Thai sprint | MotoGP

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