The fight for the 2023 FIM MotoGP™ World Championship this weekend is a duel between two men : Francesco Bagnaia ( Ducati Lenovo Team ) and sole challenger Jorge Martin ( Prima Pramac Racing ) for the biggest prize in motorcycling ! Thanks to a settled preseason , Bagnaia started the season as favourite to reclaim his crown . Early victories at Portimao , Jerez and Mugello suggested this was going to be a fairly straight run to the third World Championship of his career . But while the early challenges of Enea Bastianini , Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo – men Bagnaia feared before the season started – fell by the wayside , it was Martin who stepped up to the challenge after building on early promise . We first saw the best of ‘ The Martinator ’ at the
Sachsenring , when he overcame a spirited Bagnaia challenge in an epic head-to-head , to claim a first Grand Prix victory since August , 2021 . But for three races after , some bad qualifying performances led to underwhelming results . At that time , Bagnaia ramped up the pressure on his rivals , winning convincingly at Assen and dominating Austria . But then came Barcelona , when a first lap highside and subsequent collision with Brad Binder injured his leg and saw him under par in the following couple of races . This was when Martin hit his stride . 66 points back after the Barcelona Sprint , thrilling victories in Misano and Motegi and the Indonesian Sprint saw him his the MotoGP championship summit for the very first time . But a crash the following day , which handed Bagnaia victory , ensured his time at the top short lived . Since then , Bagnaia and Martin have traded blows in thrilling fashion during the overseas races . The championship pendulum swung Bagnaia ’ s was in Phillip Island , before moving in the opposite direction in Thailand , when Martin kept his cool in the most intense encounter of the year to claim a crucial win . Bagnaia ’ s cool headed approach and insistence on always working for Sunday has largely served him well in the long-term . But Martin ’ s mesmeric speed contributed to him scoring seven Sprint victories and he ’ s arguably been the faster rider this year . It all points to a thrilling finale this weekend when one of the two names will be MotoGP ’ s – and Ducati ’ s – top dog in 2023 .