During Sunday’s race at Sepang, MotoGP series leader Bagnaia had to fend off fellow Ducati rider Bastianini, with the latter seemingly not bothered that Bagnaia had the chance to clinch the title.
Given Fabio Quartararo finished third, first or second was not going to be enough to claim the title for Bagnaia, although Bastianini, who was unclear of the situation behind, pressed on with his attempts to win the race anyway.
In fact, Bastianini nearly ran into the back of Bagnaia at turn nine on the final lap, which came after an unusual mid-race meeting between Ducati management.
Bastianini, who was also shown a pit board when leading the race which alerted him to the fact Bagnaia was directly behind him, confirmed post-race that he tried to win despite everything.
So when Bagnaia was asked how he envisions the relationship going between the two as teammates next season, it came as no surprise that the Italian felt like things could be challenging.
“The atmosphere will not be easy,” said Bagnaia. “We have to try and do a good work and for sure, it’s different compared to now. He’s a different person and really [wants to win].
“It’s difficult for me to explain well in English because I don’t have this vocabulary like in Italian.
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“But it will be a different situation because he’s another person and I think that at the start when you arrive at a factory team you need to adapt a bit to the work with all the engineers.
“It will not be easy for him at the start in testing, but then in the championship it will be the same as always. The first person you want to beat is your team-mate. It will be like this for all the years. “
Bagnaia not planning on being more ‘careful’ than MotoGP title beckons
Despite increasing his points lead to 23 in the MotoGP standings over Quartararo, thus only needing two points in Valencia to be crowned champion if the Yamaha rider wins the race, Bagnaia is keen to not let up.
“For sure, it will be a different situation,” stated Bagnaia. “23 points, I’m just missing two, so I will have to finish 14th if he wins. It’s easy to say now, but it will be very tough because sometimes when you are careful, you have more trouble, you have more mistakes , you have more distractions.
“I will try just to do a normal weekend like this one, maybe with less crashes – because this weekend, I crashed too much – and be smart, for sure.
“To work well, to be in the front, and if I have the possibility to win, I will try to win again.”
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