After relinquishing the series lead to Jorge Martin following the Spaniard’s sprint win at the Indonesian MotoGP, B🌜agnaia looked on course to drop more points.

Martin took the lead before riders had even navigated turn one, but despite holding a comfortable lead of over three seconds 13 lಞaps later, Martin threw all his hard work outꦉ the window with a crash at turn 11.

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In despair at the side of the track, Martin then watched Bagnaia close in on Mav𝓰erick Vinales before taking the lead with a few laps to go.

Bagnaia, who never lost the lead from that point forward, said this after his fir💛st win since Austria: It’s a great moment for sure. Yesterday I was quite upset after the qualifying and the sprint race because I was struggling a lot to set a fast lap with new tyres. 

“I was struggling a lot to overtake riders. The pace was not bad but I did♐n’t have any chance to overtake my teammate. 

“But today we improve𒉰d a lot. In the warm-up I already felt better and in the race I just tried to do the 𝓡maximum at the start. 

“I have to say that the hard front tyre helped me to brake ve✱ry hard. When I was in third position I was just pushing to try and catch Maverick. 

“I could see that Martin was going away but I was thinking that Jorge’s pace was very fast. I was starting to feel so🌸me drop from the rear and after his crash I just tried to push again for 2-♑3 laps. 

“The last lap I really enjoyed and I knew that the guys behind were catching but I just tried to close out the l🃏ap.”

Post-race Bagnaia also spoke about the importance of his victory and whether winning for the first timeܫ since Austria or taking back the series lead was more meaningful.&ꦕnbsp; 

“Both! From my side this victory means many things,” said the reigning world champion. “We were so compe🦋titive again. We were missing this feeling so to have this performance again was very important. 

“In a moment where Jorge was out it was important to t🌸ake the most points available. We did that. 

♔“From the moment in Barcelona it was not easy and honestly, the win toda💛y has given a lot of motivation.”