T♊he Ducati rider has won five of the last nine races plus three further podiums (and a fifth non-score of the season).

But the title would have remained out of reach had Quartararo not also suffered four non-scores and꧃ only two podiums over the same period.

Reigning champion Quartararo must now win Sunday’s Valencia race and then n🅠eeds Bagnaia 15th or lower to prevent the Italian claiming﷽ the title.

On the eve of the finale, six-time MotoGP champion M💖arc Marquez was asked if he felt Quartararo had ‘lost’ the title in the second half of the season or if Ba🍃gnaia had gone out and ‘won’ it.

“You can choose bo🥀th ways,” Marquez replied. “Because Fabio did a lot of mistakes, but Pecco won many races.

“Pecco did an𓄧 am🅰azing second part of the season, that he did last year already. But last year, Fabio was constant and he managed his advantage.

“This year Pecco did the same thing. Amaz💦ing second part of the se꧑ason, even better than last year, but Fabio was more inconsistent. But what I say is that Fabio, what he did in the first part of the season was more than the level he had [from] the bike.

“So he put that extra an📖d then Pecco put that extra in the second part of the season, plus the bike [Ducati] for me is working better than the Yamaha.

“Buꦰt both of them deserve it. And especi💖ally the way that Pecco managed the Malaysian GP is not easy. It's not easy when you are fighting for a championship. So yeah, [Bagnaia] has the level to be champion of course.”

Prior to Sepang, Mar✤quez ♔spent much of the Phillip Island race locked onto Bagnaia’s rear wheel.

“The strongest point of [a rider] is always combined with their bi♏ke,” Marquez said.

“Becaus🎀e the strongest point of Fabio is corner speed but it’s combined with the bike. Then Pecco, they had a really good bike to take profit with the new tyre and especially to m൲anage the race with a group.

“Because they have an amazing engine, the fastest of the grid. And they have also veꦫry good braking stability. So they are braking so late. Corner speed is not amazing,💧 but acceleration is so good so then it's very difficult to overtake.

“But as I saw in Phillip Island, is not everything amazing with the Ducati bike. Also the corner speed was slower than mine and especially Suzuki also had much bett🧸er corner speed than the Ducati.

“So then you need to find a compromise and as a rider, be smart and take the profit of your bike and adapt ꦆto your bike and he [Bagnaia] did very well and he's riding very very ꦓgood.

“🎉🌟Whoever is the best rider in MotoGP 2022 will finish the [Valencia] race and be champion.”