The key moments that led to Bagnaia’s historic maiden MotoGP title

Bagnaia came into the 2022 season as one of the favourites to fight for the championship, having ended up just 26 points behind 2021 title winner Fabio Quartararo at the conclusion of a breakout campaign for the Ducati rider.

But a troubled pre-season on the GP22 put Bagnaia onto the back foot, with the Italian electing to revert to a 2021-spec engine prior to the opening round of the year in Qatar.

Bagnaia’s problems of understanding the new Ducati plagued the first five rounds of his season, as he crashed out trying to recover from ninth on the grid in Qatar; struggled to 15th in the wet Indonesian GP; took back-to-back fifths in Argentina and America; and was eighth after battering himself with a qualifying crash in Portugal that left him last on the grid.

Coming into the sixth round of the season, Bagnaia was 38 points adrift of Fabio Quartararo – who endured a similarly difficult start to 2022 on the underwhelming Yamaha package – and his title hopes were already on the rocks.

It was at this point that he set himself on the path to the 2022 world title, albeit by unconventional means that – at one stage – had basically ended his hopes.

Here are the key moments that ultimately won Bagnaia the 2022 world title.

1 May 2022 – Spanish Grand Prix – Jerez

Bagnaia began to make strides in understanding the 2022 Ducati at the previous round in Portugal, gaining more confidence on the front end of the bike.

At Jerez, the Bagnaia that ended the 2021 season with four victories emerged as he qualified on pole and then fended off chief rival Quartararo by 0.285 seconds in the race to claim his first win of the season.

Bagnaia cut his championship disadvantage to Quartararo down to 33 points as he moved up from 10th in the standings to fifth.

Carrying a shoulder injury from his Portimao qualifying crash, which he was “worried about”, Bagnaia said his Jerez win was a result of stopping his desperate attempts to adapt the bike to himself and work with what he had.

“I think we did a good thing in stopping trying to adapt this bike to me and just leaving the bike the same,” Bagnaia said at Jerez. For sure this bike needed a different riding style because now I can be faster in the corners. So, it’s a bit different. But finally I think that I’m back to my best shape like I was last year and I would like to continue like this now, not losing…