Francesco Bagnaia endured a very frustrating season at MotoGP this year, seeing how he was completely overshadowed by his Ducati Lenovo teammate Marc Márquez, who claimed his seventh World title in MotoGP (ninth overall) last Sunday in Motegi, Japan. The 28-year-old Italian won the MotoGP World Championship in 2022 and 2023, and was runner-up in 2024 closely behind Jorge Martín (who endured a far worse season, to be honest).
Bagnaia was hoping to fight for the title, and instead will have to settle with a third place. He currently has 274 points, with compatriot Marco Bezzecchi from Aprilia Racing behind with 242 points. However, he still has chances to fight for second place... against Marc's younger brother, Álex Márquez, who has 340 points.
"It's true that [there is a gap of] 66 points with just five races to go, but the objective is doing the maximum. I really hope to arrive in Indonesia in the same way as I was feeling here, and try to fight against Alex. This is the correct objective right now", Bagnaia said when asked the creative question of whether his 2026 campaign started now.
Álex has an advantage of 68 points, and it seems huge with only five races to go (Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Portugal, and Valencia). But it is not impossible: during last weekend, Bagnaia gained 27 points on Álex.