Francesco Bagnaia finished on the podium♛ in eight out of nine races (including five wins) from Assen to Sepang last season, allowing him to catch and then s🍃natch the 2022 title from Fabio Quartararo.

However, the factory Ducati star is now on the rece💜iving end of simila๊r crushing momentum from 2023 championship rival Jorge Martin.

The Pramac Ducati rider has stormed to ten podiums (eight wins) in the last twelve races (including Spr✤ints) to sit just 13 points behind Bagnaia with three rounds to go.

But it’s nᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚot just Bagnaia who is no doubt casting a careful eye over Martin’s 🦩data.

The open data sharing policy at Ducati, wඣhich is thought to include a personalised report from Ducati Corse, outlining each rider’s stren🔯gths and weakness from the data after each event, means all the other Desmosedici competitors can also see where Martin is gaining.

VR46’s Luca Marini explained that, rather than a specific riding technique or technical setting giving Martin the edge, it is the Spaniard’s sky-high confidence that is encouraging tಌhe #89 to push the limits.

"At this moment,൲ Martin is making an amazing job, also his feeling with the bike is incredible,” Marini said. “Every time you look at [his] data, he can turn the bike on a [drinking] glass, as we say in Italian.”

Asked if Martin’s extreme lean-💙angle style was the key to his cornering ability, Marini insisted:

"No, because Jorge’s [riding style] is the same - also last year he was ꦉriding in an amazing way, but [his results were] not so ⛦fantastic.

“It depends a lot on the bike balance, the feeling and confidence you have on the bike, which can help you push more and ride well. But everybody rides ve🦄ry well [in MotoGP].”

Instead, Marini added weight to the theory that Pramac ha🦄s found a set-up that per🍸fectly suits Martin’s style and are not deviating from it.

“It’s just he’s found 𓃲a very good [bike] bꦿalance that works very well at every circuit,” Marini said.

“We need to keep working like this. But we are doing a great job ourselves. It’s normal he’s going a bit faster than us because he has a🌞 factory bike and after all the upgrades now to their bike and my [2022] bike, the gap is a little bit bigger.

“Bu𝓀t i♛t’s not an excuse for us because with our bike we can make a podium at every GP."

Although still seeking his second grand ౠprix podium after a career best runner-up finish in COTA, Marini has been in the top three at the last🐈 two Saturday Sprint races (Indonesia and Thailand).

But he left Burir𒁃am disapointed with seventh place (followi🤡ng Aleix Espargaro's penalty) in the Sunday race.

"I expected a little💟 bit better. For sure the top three guys [Martin, Bagnaia, Binder] were really strong, really fast," he said. "I was trying to manage the rear tyre a lot but in the end I finished it before the other riders.

"I was struggling especially on stopping the bike and corner entry, because when I was slidin𝕴g it was difficult to have a good turning inside the corner,&n🃏bsp;so this penalised my exit. This [problem] was in entry in my opinion.

"We need to look at the data to understandꦡ in which part I was using the rear tyre too much, which temperature, and if we can find a solution for next time, which can also be Malaysia because there is a lot of temperature also there. It will be very important to keep down the temperature of the tyres."

The Malaysian MotoGP starts on Friday.