Red alert for Fabio Quartararo.
Disappointing last weekend in Japan, Francesco Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaro have promised to take revenge in Thailand on the leader of the MotoGP championship, which is advancing into a zone of turbulence while heavy rains are expected until Sunday.
Four races from the finish, the Niçois holds the rope, with 18 points ahead of the Italian and 25 over the Spaniard, at the top of a classification he has dominated since April.
But, for the Yamaha rider, the home stretch promises to be as slippery as the wet roads of Buriram in the middle of the rainy season.
Read alsoMotoGP: Miller wins in Japan, Quartararo breathes in the championship
In Isan, in the middle of the rice fields, Bagnaia and Espargaro want to catch up on Sunday, a week after conceding ground in Motegi, Japan.
The first crashed on the very last lap trying to overtake Quartararo when the second was the victim of human error (his Aprilia was misconfigured), which condemned him to a disappointing 16th place, out of the points.
"
I have to understand how to keep a cool head in these situations
," admitted "
Pecco
" Bagnaia, vice-world champion in title.
Read alsoMotoGP: "I may have been a little too ambitious" admits Bagnaia after his fall
To prevent this scenario from repeating itself, the Ducati rider needs to regain the momentum he had before Motegi, with four successes and a second place in the last five Grands Prix.
His resplendent form coupled with a bike deemed more efficient than that of Quartararo had melted the title holder's lead in the standings.
“Pecco” Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo, the two big rivals for the title.
David Goldmann / PANORAMIC
“A good circuit” for Quartararo
"El Diablo", which has no room for error, relies on its consistency to retain its first place, and, in Buriram, on its good feelings.
"
It's a good circuit for me and also for Yamaha
," said the Frenchman, who wants to do better than his eighth place in Japan.
In 2019, during the last GP of Thailand, absent from the calendar for the past two years due to the Covid-19, he had won pole position, before long thinking of gleaning his first success in the premier category.
But Marc Marquez overtook him on the last lap, to clinch victory and a sixth MotoGP world championship title, his latest.
The Spaniard finds this circuit with a very different status: that of justice of the peace in the race for the title, from which he has been absent for two years due to health problems.
Noru spoilsport
On his Honda, he equaled his best performance of the season in Japan (4th), with the bonus of pole, won in the rain.
“
I would like to fight up front like in Japan, but I don't think it's realistic to have that expectation.
That's not our goal either.
We are here to build
,” he said.
Read alsoMotoGP: a “much better” than expected weekend for Marc Marquez in Japan
Successor to Marquez in 2020 in the championship, Joan Mir continues to treat his right ankle.
Injured since August, the Majorcan will be replaced on the handlebars of his Suzuki by the Italian Danilo Petrucci, who has two victories to his credit in 2012.
Another surprise guest could come to Buriram: Typhoon Noru, which hit the Philippines and then Vietnam this week.
The Thai authorities plan its passage in the northeast of Thailand, but with a lower intensity than that observed in neighboring countries.
Heavy rains are expected until Sunday due to this tropical storm which intervenes in the middle of the wet season, in an area already affected by floods this year.
After Thailand - the third race in three weeks - the drivers will continue with Australia on October 16.
