Moto GP: only 15th in testing in Valencia, Bagnaia under threat from Martin

Jorge Martin puts pressure on Francesco Bagnaia! The Spaniard finished Friday in the Top 10 of the qualifying tests for the Valencia Grand Prix, the last round of the MotoGP season, while the Italian, better placed in the race for the world title, will have to go through the repechage.

Riding his Ducati-Pramac, the Madrilenian, who is 21 points behind the reigning world champion while there are 37 points left to distribute this weekend on the Ricardo-Tormo circuit, took second place in the session contested under bright sunshine and dominated by his compatriot Maverick Vinales (Aprilia).

Martin, who saw a large part of his chances of winning a first world title evaporate last Sunday by finishing only 10th in the Qatar GP, did not hesitate to embarrass his opponent by following him very closely on Friday for the prevent him from securing his place for Q2, which will determine the first 12 places on the starting grid for the sprint on Saturday and the Grand Prix on Sunday. And his intimidation, combined with several yellow flags following falls at the end of the session, worked since Bagnaia was trapped and was unable to improve his time in the final minutes as he is accustomed to doing.

“There was tension. Taking someone's wheel is not something I like to do but I had to try to put pressure on him in one way or another to complicate his life and I succeeded because it made him nervous and he will have to go through Q1,” Martin explained.

The Turinese finally took 15th place with his official Ducati and will have to finish in one of the first two places in the repechage (Q1) on Saturday morning to have the right to fight straight away for pole position. “It wasn't an easy day, I was in trouble. We will study the data collected today to improve tomorrow (Saturday). Jorge (Martin) had to try to do something today...but he should instead concentrate on his work and try to improve because he knows he has to win both races,” reacted Bagnaia.

The French experienced mixed fortunes on Friday since Johann Zarco (Ducati-Pramac) appeared very comfortable on the Valencian track with the best time in the morning free practice and the third time in the qualifying practice in the afternoon. After finishing sixth in free practice, Quartararo was in the Top 10 in qualifying practice for a long time but he finally slipped to 13th place after being stopped in his final attempts by several yellow flags.