With five rounds in six weeks concluding the 2023 MotoGP season, the battle for the world championship is fast boiling down to a two-horse race between Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin after VR46 rider Marco Bezzecchi - albeit still not mathematically out of contention - slid 63 points adrift of the points lead last weekend at the Indonesian GP.
The tug-of-war between Bagnaia on the factory team Ducati and Pramac's Martin on identical machinery has been widening its radius of action. Until a few days ago, they made practically no reference to each other. But that changed drastically at Mandalika. There, during his pre-event media duties, Martin declared that he was in a hurry to take the overall lead in the points table.
