Bagnaia’s Points Lead Grows After Second Place in Losail

In Saturday’s 11-lap sprint race Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac Ducati) continued his powerful late-season finish record by winning, with series leader and current champion Francesco Bagnaia (Lenovo factory Duc) finishing fifth. This cut Bagnaia’s points lead to just seven.

In Sunday’s GP their roles were flipped, with Bagnaia leading 18 of the 22 laps to finish second to Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Duc) while Martín struggled with missing grip. He finished 10th 15 seconds out of first, or two-thirds of a second a lap off the pace.

Result? With only Valencia remaining, Bagnaia’s advantage has now increased to 21 points.

Bagnaia described a turn 1 near miss after Giannantonio’s lap 18 pass: “…getting sucked into the slipstream can happen. I didn’t expect it to be so strong.

“It was terrifying. For a moment I was sure that I was going to touch Fabio…but somehow I managed to slow the bike down more. On the next two laps I was still shaking and was very slow.

“Luckily I managed to put the bike sideways and brake hard—with the bike straight I would have hit him.

“After that scare, in the last two laps I only thought about getting to the finish line.”

Martín, after his crushing disappointment, said, “You saw the start when my rear tire spun wildly. It was as hard as a rock. From the outside it might look like I’ve forgotten how to ride overnight.”

This implies that Martín’s grip did not decline over the course of laps; it was missing from the start.

Fabio Quartararo commented on Martín’s plight: “I don’t know what problems he had but it wasn’t the same Jorge [who had won the sprint 24 hours earlier].

The sprint had been action-filled, with the two rivals making contact entering turn 1 and Martín taking the lead on lap 2 by going under Bagnaia.

Afterward Martín said, “…a big relief to win today after such a difficult day yesterday. Also, today in the morning I felt something was a bit wrong but then I think we found something…”

A difficult day yesterday? Losail Circuit has been well repaved. Maverick Viñales (factory Aprilia) would later say, “The new surface is fantastic! You have more grip and fewer undulations every time. It’s easier to ride.”

Friday morning had been a different story, as usual, the track was covered in fine windblown dust from the surrounding desert, reducing grip and making tires spin. Bagnaia had a grip panic: “I couldn’t push hard today and I didn’t have traction.”

That was ameliorated in the afternoon with other tires. He said, “We need to see how much the grip on the track will improve because, today, from the first to the second session we dropped [in lap time] by four seconds.

“But I think the tarmac grip will improve a lot.”

The powerful air currents jetting into the space behind fast-moving tires (Bagnaia’s Ducati reached 219.5 mph) soon blast out much of the dust, and the normal process of “rubbering up” the track begins—even if the first result is just a narrow racing line. But in the meantime, the dust reduces the molecular adhesion component of tire traction, leading to spinning and rapid wear as tread rubber slides more easily against the not-yet-polished new surface.

Whenever grip is low, measures are taken to better exploit what there is of it. Wheelbase is normally shortened and ride height raised to make it easier for acceleration with lower grip to transfer weight onto the rear tire (thereby maximizing acceleration and reducing spin). Spring and damping rates may be reduced to increase mechanical grip.

Crew chiefs know that grip will increase as the track cleans up, so the game is to try to keep bike setup in step with grip, exit after exit. As grip returns, wheelbases will be lengthened again and ride heights reduced.

Even so, riders reported continuing spin in the sprint, Quartararo (factory Yam) saying, “I had a lot of wheelspin.”

Pole-sitter Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Duc) said, “The spinning lasts for several meters” at the exit of the last turn.

Martín said, “I didn’t make a good start in the practices. I was spinning and thinking I would be 20th on the first lap if I did the same.”

Yet there were also indications that grip improvement might not solve everyone’s problems:

Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) said, “I felt great in the first three, four laps of the sprint and thought, ‘I can do something here today.’ But then as soon as the grip level dropped I ran into trouble.”

Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Duc) reported that in the sprint “I was really struggling with the grip at the rear, although to be honest I think the grip here is strange for everyone.”

Eventual winner Di Giannantonio said, “At the moment, all the tires have problems. But it depends on what you’re looking for—whether you want duration or speed. Unfortunately the tires wear out very quickly, and this is going to be a problem.”

One result was Bagnaia’s disappointing sprint race: “I had the feeling of being able to win today, but instead I had no traction. I lost out when exiting the corners.

“I had no grip compared to those in front of me. As soon as I opened the throttle the rear tire was slipping.”

Martín concluded that on Sunday he’d received a bad tire—an idea heard several times this year from other riders, even though all are careful not to push such upsetting ideas too hard.

Michelin rep Piero Taramasso said, “Regarding Jorge Martín’s statement after the race we’re still analyzing the data. What we can say at this stage is that his tire came straight here after being manufactured, that it hadn’t been used or warmed up on any other occasion before being used for the race.

“Records were broken this weekend and the race lap record was broken on the last lap of the Grand Prix, demonstrating the consistent performance of Michelin tires.”

Race winner Di Giannantonio said, “We were fast throughout the weekend and after the sprint I said to myself, ‘Maybe we have a clear chance!’ I want and have to say that my crew is simply fantastic. Since Frankie Carchedi joined our team [as crew chief] we have started to work very closely together.

“We planned every single lap and everything went according to plan.”

We outsiders have no way to know the cause of Jorge Martín’s wheelspin and disappointing performance, just a day after his winning performance in the sprint. The biggest setup changes would have taken place between Friday morning and the sprint, with fewer changes required once the track had been cleaned by practices and qualifying. We also know that no production process is infallible. Because time does not in general run backward, Martín can look only to the future for opportunities to distinguish himself

The season ends in one week, at Valencia.