With 21 points splitting factory Ducati rider Bagnaia and Pramac’s Martin coming into this weekend’s finale, the former could have won the championship in the sprint by outscoring his rival by at least four points.
But, despite leading early on, Bagnaia could only finish fifth as Martin stormed through to win and trimmed his points deficit to 14 going into Sunday’s grand prix.
Bagnaia says he made a mistake by choosing the medium compound tyre for Saturday’s sprint, but is confident he can perform well on Sunday.
The defending champion also feels Martin will face a tougher task in the decider, knowing he must win with Bagnaia finishing outside the top five to snatch the title.
Asked about the pressure he was feeling, Bagnaia said: “The pressure is on both, I think.
“I think [Jorge] will be also more in trouble than today, because with 21 points it’s different compared to 14 and knowing that he have to win and don’t have to make mistakes. Me too, the same.
“So I will go tonight for dinner with my team, I hope to enjoy the dinner, but I’m quite confident that our pace today was very fast.
“Unluckily we did a mess with the tyre choice, but our pace is very good normally and I’m sure that Sunday we are very strong, so we can have a good performance.”
Source: Autosport