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.”
Elaborating on his tyre struggles, Bagnaia said the medium tyre had felt “great” during Saturday morning’s qualifying session, but that it was “not a good choice” for the race.
He said for Sunday’s race, he will “do what Jorge will do,” joking that it was “easier” to copy his Pramac rival.
Bagnaia added: “I think considering what happened today, the medium wasn’t good.
“I was losing a lot of time in the first part of acceleration and the moment I was being overtaken by Jorge I crossed the lines, and in the exit, in the front I lost the position.
“So I was losing too much time. I tried to do a better entry, better braking, but when the rear is not giving to you the maximum amount of grip, you start to push too much on the front and then everything is worse.
“So it is what it is and for tomorrow we have to be more calm.
“With the same result as today, I will be champion, so Jorge needs to win and we know perfectly how strong we are in Sunday races and this makes to me that we can be competitive and fight for the podium.”
Asked how he had maintained a calm and collected attitude, Bagnaia insisted it was just “appearance”, but said he had felt more in trouble during last year’s title decider.
In that showdown, he entered the title decider 23-points ahead of Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo, but says he was more at risk than after Saturday’s race.
He said: “I have to say that last year, even if I was with nine points more, I was more in trouble than today, and with just one race.
“So maybe I learn from last year and this is very important for sure.
“But when you are 10 minutes before the start it would be the same situation and the nerves there will be quite intense.”
