Bagnaia ‘can be in trouble if I’m too careful’ in Valencia MotoGP title-decider

The Ducati rider won last weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, but with Fabio Quartararo finishing third it was not enough to wrap up the title.

As a result, Bagnaia heads to next week’s Valencia GP in need of just two points to win the championship in what will be just the fifth final round title-decider in the modern MotoGP era.

With Quartararo’s only possible way of defending his title being to win in Valencia, Bagnaia does not need to take any undue risks to ensure Ducati’s first MotoGP riders’ championship since 2007.

But Bagnaia says he will not alter his approach to Valencia as riding too cautiously is more likely to lead to problems.

“For sure it will be, in terms of the championship, a bit better,” Bagnaia said of the Valencia race.

“But normally when you are too careful you can be in trouble, because you are in the group, it’s more difficult to do things, the front tyre goes [through] pressure [changes].

“So, I will try to do like always, not like this [weekend] because I crashed too much.

Enea Bastianini, Gresini Racing and Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“But [I need to] be smart, understand everything, and then in the race if I have the possibility to win I will try to win.

“I will wait for Friday in Valencia, hoping for dry sessions, and then I will see what will happen.”

Bagnaia endured a tough Malaysian weekend prior to his victory, as he crashed twice on Saturday and ended up ninth on the grid.

But the Italian says he wants to take to Valencia the knowledge that he won the Malaysian GP “without forcing” his bike.

“Now I can relax,” he added.

“The weekend [in Malaysia] was quite tough for the mistakes I did [on Saturday].

“So, for Valencia I would like to understand that we can be strong enough without forcing like we did [on Saturday].

“And today was the demonstration that our pace was good enough without doing crazy things.”