Martin believes Bagnaia still ‘the favourite’ for 2024 MotoGP title – Motorsport

Current MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin pinpoints Francesco Bagnaia as “the favourite” for the 2024 Riders’ title despite being 30 points adrift in the standings.

The Italian won the season opener in Qatar, but a racing incident with Marc Marquez in Portugal and chatter issues at COTA have seen him fall down to fifth in the rankings.

Despite this mixed start to the year, Martin still sees the reigning MotoGP champion as the favourite to retain his crown this term despite anticipating a more open contest.

“I don’t know, I think there are a lot of riders who can be fighting for the championship,” he said.

“I think still Pecco is the favourite because he won last season, he is the number one.

“So, now we just need to be… I mean, the rivals are strong. We have Marc [Marquez], we have even Pedro [Acosta], who is really, really good and constant.

“So, we never know. Enea [Bastianini] was super strong all weekend. The important thing is we are fast everywhere, and we need to be focused on that.”

Despite his 21-point cushion over Factory Ducati rider Enea Bastianini, Martin is unfazed about his championship chances despite making a strong start to the season.

“For sure, I don’t look at the moment to that,” he said of his position in the standings.

“I don’t like to think about that. But the points we are doing are for this reason. I am happy about that.

“I am happy that we have 80 points already, it’s quite a lot.

“I think we have to be happy and keep this line, or this way, because we are working quite well and focusing on ourselves and improving the results from last season.

“This is a track where I struggled on in the past and this weekend we got quite a lot of points, and for sure it’s better to be in the lead than 10th.”