The war brewing as Ducati nears its ultimate MotoGP prize

On any other day, it would have been a champions ride. Francesco Bagnaia’s stunning launch from ninth to second at the opening corner of last Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix put him firmly in contention to win the grand prix.

Had Pramac poleman Jorge Martin not crashed out, perhaps second was the best he could do. But once the Spaniard had fallen out of contention on lap seven at Turn 5, Bagnaia engaged a level seldom seen by the mistake-prone Italian. Absorbing huge pressure from Enea Bastianini, the Ducati rider barely put a foot wrong as he snatched his seventh – and most important – win of the 2022 season.

After a weekend of problems, with crashes in FP3 and qualifying, Bagnaia showed for the first time he really had learned from the errors of his past in a race where it would have been very easy to buckle under the weight of pressure heaped upon him.

He did everything he could, but it wasn’t enough after Fabio Quartararo put in a ride of equally stunning proportions to show that while his time at the top of the world may be coming to an end, it certainly had nothing to do with him.

Qualifying down in 12th, Quartararo copied Bagnaia’s bravery tactics into Turn 1 to jump up to sixth, which quickly became fifth when he despatched Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli. When he was in third after Martin crashed out, he had to contend with a charging Marco Bezzecchi on the VR46 Ducati.

The Yamaha’s lack of top speed and rear grip left him with nothing but his talent to keep the Italian at bay on a bike that would have been impossible to re-pass had Bezzecchi come through. Quartararo was able to streak away in the latter stages having come within three tenths of Bezzecchi at one stage, and it was a result that has kept his title hopes alive to set up just the fifth final round championship showdown in the modern MotoGP era – albeit with a mammoth 23-point gap to close.

It was a ride so good even Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi came to parc ferme to congratulate Quartararo.

Bagnaia took victory at last Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix with Quartararo in third

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The permutations are simple heading to Valencia: Quartararo must win the race to have any chance of retaining his crown. Bagnaia simply has to score two points in that eventuality to seal the deal and become the first Ducati rider to win the world championship since Casey Stoner did so in 2007.

Quartararo is the one in the box seat in that he has no pressure on him. He has just one objective for Valencia, whereby Bagnaia has everything to lose should he make one mistake. And the factory Ducati rider knows as much.

“For sure it will be a different situation,” Bagnaia said after the Sepang race about his title hopes in Valencia. “23 points, just missing two, so I will have to finish 14th if he [Quartararo] wins. It’s easy to say now but it’s very tough because sometimes when you are more careful you are in more trouble, you make more mistakes, you have more distractions.

“We will just try to do a normal weekend like this one, but with less crashes because this weekend we crashed too much. And be smart, to work well and to be in the front, and if I will have the possibility to win I will win again.”

“I tried to overtake Pecco again in the last lap, but it was a little bit dangerous. Sometimes we have to also see there are other questions, he battles for the championship" Enea Bastianini

While Bagnaia rode above and beyond in Malaysia, the race was far from simple for Ducati. Hounding him all the way was Gresini’s Bastianini, who next year will join Bagnaia in the factory garage.

Since Misano, Ducati has established guidelines for its eight riders when fighting with Bagnaia – as revealed by Pramac’s Johann Zarco in Thailand. For wins and podiums, Ducati has allowed its riders to freely race, but under the proviso that extreme caution is taken when attempting an overtake on Bagnaia. For positions outside of the podium, Ducati prefers its other riders to leave Bagnaia to it.

Stopping short of strict factory orders, Ducati’s action plan for its riders has straddled the delicate balance of being reasonable. Ducati has been more blunt about team orders before, issuing Jorge Lorenzo with ‘suggested mapping 8’ messages to his bike’s dashboard at the 2017 Malaysian and Valencia GPs – which was essentially code for ‘get out of the way of Andrea Dovizioso’. Lorenzo never adhered to either call, though it ultimately didn’t make a difference as Dovizioso crashed out of the Valencia race and finished runner-up.

While Bagnaia rode above and beyond in Malaysia, Bastianini hounded him all the way

Photo by: Ducati Corse

Factory orders have been a hot topic in the second half of the season, with Bagnaia stating back in Japan that he “doesn’t need” outside assistance to help him win the championship.

This didn’t stop concerned faces on the pitwall at Sepang amongst Ducati’s senior management, with Tardozzi, sporting director Paolo Ciabatti and general manager Gigi Dall’Igna repeatedly engaging in discussions as Bastianini and Bagnaia ran line astern in the race.

Bastianini did overtake Bagnaia on lap 11, but once in front didn’t have the pace to break away and Bagnaia returned to the lead on lap 14 of 20. It stands to reason that, had Bezzecchi come through on Quartararo, Ducati may well have gone to Gresini to get its man to call off the hounds as victory for Bagnaia and fourth for Quartararo would have ended the title race there.

Both Bagnaia and Bastianini played nice post-race, with the former captured by a photographer jokingly thrusting an invisible knife into the Gresini rider’s back.

After the race, Bastianini was asked if he had any orders to stay behind Bagnaia. While not ever answering that, he did say it was always his plan to attack the championship leader on the final lap – which he did, and almost came to blows as he closed right in on the braking zone for Turn 9 and had to go to Bagnaia’s outside.

Asked in the Dorna TV set after the race if he had been issued any orders, Bastianini said: “I tried to overtake Pecco again in the last lap, but it was a little bit dangerous. Sometimes we have to also see there are other questions, he battles for the championship. And it’s like this.” He later said: “Yes [my plan was to overtake Bagnaia on the last lap], I like to attack, but always careful because for Ducati this title is important.”

Tardozzi later defended Bastianini, saying the media must listen to what the riders tell them on this subject.

Factory orders at Ducati have been a hot topic in the second half of the season

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“We keep telling the Ducati riders not to make bold overtakes,” Tardozzi told Italian television. “Then it is also fair to tell them that there is another Ducati rider behind. The key to remove any doubt is that Enea, who is playing for third place in the world championship with Aleix Espargaro, clearly needs points. At that moment there he had some, he was able to pass Pecco and did three laps in front, but slowing down.

“Look at the times Enea did when he was in front and the times he did when he was behind Pecco. In the front he had 2m01.1s, then when he got behind he did 2m00.6s again: if you have any [pace], you do this time even when you are in front. Enea did a great race, he will be a title contender next year, however, let's stop saying that Ducati is tarring the results. I insist that the only thing we say is don't do reckless things. Period. We should also start believing what the riders say.”

Whether or not Bastianini would have listened to any factory orders in the first place is something up for debate. When Zarco told the media in Thailand about the instructions Ducati had issued its riders, he noted “apart from Bastianini, the others [at Ducati] are able to talk to each other and we respect each other.”

Winning four times this season on a year-old bike with Gresini, Bastianini is set to be the toughest team-mate Bastianini has faced in MotoGP

While both Bagnaia and Bastianini have remained cordial this season, with the former repeatedly claiming both have a good relationship, there is a degree of frostiness there. After the French GP, when Bagnaia crashed out battling Bastianini for victory, the latter said Bagnaia “prefers [Jack] Miller [as a team-mate for 2023] because he is the leader of Ducati and he knows the potential of me, and also I think of Martin. It can be a problem for him.”

Winning four times this season on a year-old bike with Gresini, Bastianini is set to be the toughest team-mate Bagnaia has faced in MotoGP. That much has already been made clear by their head-to-head duels at Le Mans, Misano, Aragon and Sepang – the pair going two for two.

Bastianini did have an outside chance of winning the title coming to Malaysia, sitting 42 points behind Bagnaia. Beating Bagnaia, however, wouldn’t have made any difference for Bastianini’s hopes as he needed his rival to be 14th or lower.

As such, Sepang was the clearest indicator that Bastianini won’t have much respect for any sort of hierarchy within the factory squad next year if Bagnaia does go on to win the world championship in a couple of weeks’ time. It very much seemed like Bastianini’s Sepang assault was personal, an attempt at spooking Bagnaia into watching his back next year.

Should the pair get locked into another battle in Valencia, how Bastianini approaches it will be very telling about how the team dynamic within the factory Ducati squad will be shaped in 2023.

Bastianini is set to be the toughest team-mate Bagnaia has faced in MotoGP

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images