Phillip Island never disappoints. Almost three years had to pass for the MotoGP World Championship to return to that incomparable setting, in which races reach a higher dimension, and last Sunday’s was no exception. Uri Puigdemont and Germán Garcia Casanova analyse, in our regular MotoGP podcast, a Grand Prix in which we experienced one of those memorable performances by Alex Rins, a rider capable of delighting us with driving displays that are as exquisite as, unfortunately, rare, beating a No less portentous Marc Márquez, who after a long journey as a result of his injury, seems to be recovering a level similar to that of yesteryear.
But if the fight between Rins and Márquez, especially on the last lap, in which victory was played in a heads-up that reminded us of Silverstone in 2019, was spectacular, no less important was the third place achieved by a Pecco Bagnaia who in Australia completed the ‘sorpasso’ on an increasingly lonely and unprotected Fabio Quartararo. While the Italian assured his assault on the leadership and, practically, on the World title, the Frenchman suffered again at the handlebars of a Yamaha unable to offer an answer to the Ducati, suffering a new fall that now leaves him 14 points behind Pecco and with only two races left to try to react.
Nor was it the dream weekend for Aprilia. Aleix Espargaró did not have the weapons to be able to display all his speed and was forced to lose another point in his attempt to stay in the fight for the title. For the Spaniard, the options are exhausted in a final stretch of the season in which Aprilia has not been up to the task. The Italian house has taken a monumental leap forward in the last year, but has reached the decisive stage with very tight gasoline.
With this new world championship scenario, nothing and no one seems to be able to prevent Bagnaia and Ducati from seizing the title this coming weekend at Sepang , a track absolutely conducive to the red bikes that have been pursuing the dream of being MotoGP champions since 2007. .
