Francesco Bagnaia acknowledged that he knew his chances for the title were over after his crash in the sprint race of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Bagnaia had been running second during the race when he lost control of his GP24 and crashed at Turn 9, surrendering critical points at a pivotal moment in the championship.

Despite winning the main race in Malaysia and securing a double victory at the Barcelona finale, Bagnaia couldn’t close the 29-point gap to Jorge Martin.

While Bagnaia maintained optimism about his title chances, he admitted after his defeat in Barcelona that he had privately accepted he had only a slim chance of winning the title.

"After my sprint race in Malaysia, I already understood it was going to be tough and difficult to win the championship," Bagnaia said.

"Overcoming a 29-point gap was always going to be quite tough, but I just focused on doing my maximum, winning all the remaining races. That was all I could do, but Jorge did a better job.

“In terms of consistency, he was exceptional—finishing second 17 or 18 times this season. That’s incredible. From our side, we faced some bad luck, and I also made mistakes. Winning a title with eight zeros is difficult to imagine.”

Bagnaia reflected on his team’s achievements despite the setbacks: "We exceeded last season's points tally despite those eight zeros—498 points compared to 467. We delivered a strong performance, almost dominating in terms of victories. But it wasn’t enough.

“For next year, I need to learn from this season and from the situations we faced.”

Bagnaia’s 11 grand prix wins placed him among the greats in MotoGP, yet his season was marred by errors and bad luck. Bagnaia crashed while leading the Catalan Grand Prix sprint and lost a podium at the Emilia Grand Prix.

However, his crash in Malaysia remains the hardest to accept, mostly due to its timing and significance.

"Of all my mistakes, the one in Misano was bad because I could have easily finished third," he admitted. "But the crash in Malaysia is the toughest to accept because I wasn’t doing anything wrong.

“I entered the corner slower, and maybe that caused the crash. That one still stings the most."