Newly-crowned double MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia declared that he’d “never felt happiness this high” after securing the 2023 title by winning the Valencia Grand Prix.
The factory Ducati rider pushed hard throughout the 27-lap contest to end his campaign on a high, though had to deal with pressure from title rival Jorge Martin in the early laps. With Martin hoping to wipe out Bagnaia’s 14-point advantage and steal away the title, the latter focussed on winning the race as his best form of defence.
His job was made easier when Martin ran wide on the second lap after getting sucked into Bagnaia’s slipstream before the title was secured shortly after as Martin crashed out of the encounter after colliding with Honda’s Marc Marquez.
Bagnaia subsequently held off fellow Ducati riders Fabio Di Gianantonio and Johann Zarco to secure a seventh win of the 2023 campaign, the Italian admitting post-race race that the style in which he secured his second championship left him the happiness he’d never felt before.
“This is incredible, I’ve never felt happiness this high,” said Bagnaia.
“It’s great because I also won the race, I didn’t need to but it’s been a dream and goal of mine to win the title with a victory so I’m really happy, but it was quite scary out there.
“In the last five laps I started to feel cold on the bike and I was fearing for the hard front tyre, but now I can breathe as it’s not been an easy day because I was under a lot of pressure.
This year was difficult because last year I arrived here and was under more pressure, this year was better because I was just focussing on the race.
“Yesterday wasn’t ideal because of the wrong tyre, but I had been preparing more for today and with the medium I knew how they would drop, which was useful.”
Bagnaia added that his drop in form following his near-catastrophic crash in Barcelona was the point where his title hopes looked to be slipping, explaining that his struggles in qualifying and the shorter sprint races in particular allowed Martin to craft a late championship charge.
“Barcelona was the key point as from there was when I started to struggle. Not from Misano because it was only a week later, and my big problem was being able to ride because my leg was in pain,” continued Bagnaia.
“From then on I struggled with my speed in terms of qualifying and the sprint, I was always not as fast as I expected like in the first part of the year.
“I’ll have to improve this for next year, but in the last few races I’ve made steps and I’m very proud of my team.”
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