Bagnaia wins wet Thai MotoGP to close gap on title rival Martin

BURIRAM, Thailand: Francesco Bagnaia won the Thai MotoGP ahead of Jorge Martin in wet conditions on Sunday to close the gap on the championship leader with two race weekends left.

Spaniard Martin´s lead over Italian defending champion Bagnaia was cut from 22 points to 17 ahead of another chapter in their title tussle at Sepang in Malaysia next week.

Pedro Acosta was third at a rainy Buriram but this was all about Martin and Bagnaia, with the title now a two-horse race and likely to go right down to the wire.

After Malaysia, the season finale is at Valencia on November 15-17.

Pramac Ducati´s Martin, who is trying to win the world crown for the first time, said he was happy to settle for second, coming home nearly three seconds behind.

“The level we are demonstrating -- not a lot of people can understand how fast we are going even in these conditions,” he said.

Bagnaia thanked his Ducati team for keeping his hopes of a third world title in a row alive.

The 27-year-old said he had never won in the rain before.

“It was a day to make the difference and luckily we did it,” he said.

“Wasn´t an easy race, it was very long and stressful but as soon as I started my feeling was good.’’