Bagnaia's debut victories 'sink in, but gap in Championship still big'

Francesco Bagnaia needs to halve Fabio Quartararo's 48-point MotoGP title lead over the next three events to at least force a final round showdown in Valencia.

Peter McLaren

29 Sep 2021

Francesco Bagnaia Fabio Quartararo MotoGP race, San Marino MotoGP 2021
© Gold and Goose Photography

Having gone from zero to two MotoGP wins in the space of a week courtesy of Back-to-back victories at Aragon and Misano, Francesco Bagnaia arrives for this weekend's COTA event with momentum on his side.

The problem for the Ducati rider, in terms of the title chase, is that he's running out of races.

The Italian's first MotoGP wins may have taken 22-points out of Fabio Quartararo's championship lead but he still remains 48 behind the Yamaha rider with just four rounds and 100 points still up for grabs.

As such, Bagnaia's first priority will be to keep the title fight alive as long as possible, which means consistently scoring big points without any major mistakes.

If Bagnaia can close to within at least 24 points of Quartararo over the next three races he will head into the Valencia season-finale with a mathematical chance of the title.

"These days of rest before the race in the United States and after the Misano test were useful for me to recharge and let the two victories sink in, especially the last one taken at my home track!" Bagnaia said.

"Both in Aragón and Misano, I felt comfortable on the bike right from Friday's free practices, and in general, my feeling on the Desmosedici has been very positive in the last two races.

"I hope to have the same feeling here in Austin and be as competitive this weekend.

"The gap in the Championship is still big, and there are only four races left, so it will be crucial to be consistent and bring home as many points as possible."

Like Quartararo, Bagnaia has only made one previous premier-class appearance at COTA, when he finished in ninth place as a rookie for Pramac Ducati.

By contrast, Miller's team-mate Jack Miller has raced at COTA five times in the premier-class, including a podium in the most recent 2019 round.

"I'm thrilled to be back racing in the United States. I like the track here in Austin, and I was on the podium the last time we raced here in 2019, so I hope to repeat that this year," said Miller, fifth in the world championship but now just one point behind Pramac's Johann Zarco.

"In the last race at Misano and in the two days of testing that we had last week at the same track, I had really good feelings on the bike, so I'm confident heading into this GP, and I am aiming of fighting for a good result here in America".

While Bagnaia faces an uphill battle to catch Quartararo for the Riders' title, Ducati leads Yamaha by 13 points in the Constructors' Championship and are just 3 points behind Monster Yamaha in the Teams' classification.