Enea Bastianini won the 2024 Thailand MotoGP Sprint Race at the Buriram Circuit, Saturday (26/10). Meanwhile, Jorge Martin successfully defeated Francesco Bagnaia for the second podium.
Francesco Bagnaia made a statement expecting Jorge Martin to be punished.
Bagnaia, who started from pole position, failed to become the 2024 Thailand MotoGP sprint race champion. The 2022 and 2023 MotoGP world champion is only third behind Enea Bastianini and Jorge Martin.
Having been behind Bastianini, Bagnaia then had to slump to third place after being overtaken by Martin.
While behind Martin, the Ducati Lenovo team rider thought the main rival would be penalized for violating the track limit.
During the 2024 Thailand MotoGP sprint race, there were several times that Martin’s bike hit the track limit several times. Bagnaia also had time to count that there were more than four times the rival’s motorcycle touched the forbidden part of the circuit.
In the race analysis issued by Dorna, Martin only violated the track limit twice. A rider will be subject to a long lap penalty if he hits the track limit three times.
“Honestly I thought so and I started counting because I saw him do it twice. I then said ‘Okay, another penalty,’ and then I saw there were two more times,” Bagnaia said.
“But maybe I miscalculated, because I didn’t see any action. So I may be wrong. But the pace today was really so intense so it was quite difficult to stay on the corners,” he added.
By finishing behind Martin in the 2024 Thailand MotoGP sprint race session, the distance with the Spaniard increased to 22 points. Bagnaia is now in second place with 411 points, while Martin is at the top of the standings with 433 points.
Former MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez, who earned an additional six points after finishing fourth in the Thai MotoGP sprint race, now has 351 points. Marquez is only eight points ahead of Bastianini who trails in fourth place.
