SEPANG, Malaysia —
MotoGP leader Francesco Bagnaia will start
Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix from ninth after crashing out, as Spaniard Jorge
Martin clocked the fastest lap ever at Sepang to land pole position.
اضافة اعلان
Ducati rider
Bagnaia’s championship rival and title-holder
Fabio Quartararo suffered even
more and was only 12th for Yamaha in qualifying on Saturday.
The Frenchman
crashed in final practice and sustained a small fracture on the third finger of
his left hand. He was declared fit to race on Sunday, as he attempts to salvage
his flagging title defense.
Prima Pramac’s
Martin took pole with a scorching one minute and 57.790 seconds.
Enea Bastianini was second, 0.456 seconds behind, with six-time world champion Marc
Marquez completing the front three.
Bagnaia, who can
win the title in Sunday’s penultimate race of the season, was more than a
second off the pace and suffered his second crash of a bad day.
He had crashed
out in third practice, but made amends by topping the first qualifying session.
The Italian was
sixth in second qualifying when he crashed out on Turn 4 on a clear day at
Sepang, and will start the race from the third row.
“I am human and
I am starting to feel a bit of pressure,” the 25-year-old admitted. “I think
it’s normal. For qualifying I wasn’t smart enough to understand my pace was
good enough to be in the front row.”
“I forced a lot
in corner four and lost the front. I’m also sorry for Fabio because I think
that the bad luck he is having is too much,” Bagnaia added of his French rival.
Bagnaia leads
the championship by 14 points over Quartararo.
There are
numerous permutations, but he will claim a maiden championship title if he
takes the checkered flag and Quartararo ends up outside the podium in Malaysia.
Otherwise, the
title fight will go to the last race of the season at Spain’s Valencia in a
fortnight.
Pole-sitter
Martin was surprised with his latest feat, having also smashed the nine-year
Phillip Island record to secure pole last weekend in Australia.
“It was hot and I didn’t
expect to make this lap time. I’m still looking to see how I did it,” said the
24-year-old Spaniard.
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