For the eighth time in 2024, Francesco Bagnaia is a Grand Prix race winner as he puts together a masterclass in Motegi.
Francesco Bagnaia won his eighth Grand Prix of the 2024 season as he dominated the Japanese Grand Prix. The two-time MotoGP World Champion is not ready to accept defeat in the 2024 title fight with Jorge Martin.
Bagnaia was 21 points behind Martin coming into the Japanese Grand Prix after being beaten by the Spaniard in Indonesia. However, Bagnaia turned his fortunes around this weekend as he did the double in Motegi.
After winning the Japanese Grand Prix Bagnaia told MotoGP.com that he is ready to fight to retain his MotoGP crown.
"We are trying, I want to keep this Championship," Bagnaia stated. "I have to do it and I have to recover points every time, but without taking risks. It is not easy, but this weekend started well and we have to take it as an example for the next ones. We need to work in the same way we did this weekend to work in a perfect way and do the best job possible in the race. The next one is Phillip Island, which is a good track for Jorge (Martin), so let's see."
'We have to believe in it, we have to never give up' - Francesco Bagnaia
On Saturday Bagnaia controlled the Sprint Race from the front of the field. The Italian repeated his tactics on Sunday as he insisted he controlled the Grand Prix in the same way.
Bagnaia said: "I had everything under control but I was hoping that with the lap times he was doing, he had finished everything. I was already in a situation where I had finished everything when I was trying to accelerate a bit to improve my pace, my rear tyre did not have the same idea. I was trying to be competitive but also not lose too much."
With four rounds left of the 2024 MotoGP season and a 10-point difference between Martin and Bagnaia the #1 is not ready to give away his crown.
"We have to believe in it, we have to never give up," Bagnaia confidently said after winning the Japanese Grand Prix. "I try to always do my best, eight wins in a season is remarkable it is my first time doing it in MotoGP and the last time I did it was in 2018 when I won in Moto2 I won eight races. So, let's keep working."
