Riders teach each other. This one brakes wonderfully, that one finds exit grip to accelerate. Differences focus the learning process until just two or three riders break free of the pack to race at their own bootstrap level.

That’s what we saw this weekend between point leader Jorge Martín (Pramac Ducati) and two-time World Champion Francesco Bagnaia (factory Ducati), who left Sepang 24 points behind Martín. One race remains. Had it not been for destructive flooding, its venue would have been Valencia. Now, that race will run in Barcelona in two weeks’ time.

In qualifying, these two took turns making shocking reductions in lap times, causing other riders to say, “They are on another level.” Martin broke the lap record on his first exit, taking a half-second advantage. At the end of the back-and-forth, it was Bagnaia on top by 0.212 second from Martín, with the rest—including both Márquez brothers—nearly a second behind in Q2.

Next came the Saturday sprint, which is half the length of Sunday’s GP, meaning it’s crucially important to get away first. The articulate Luca Marini, now on the slowly recuperating Honda, said, “If you stay behind another bike, it’s a disaster. The temperature of everything rises a lot. You feel the heat in your body, the front tire, and the engine.

“Everything starts to be slower—the engine [loses power], the front tire stops less, and the rear tire temperature rises.”

Kenny Roberts has spoken of concentration—simplifying the tasks the mind must manage, and cutting unproductive program steps. Zen speaks of being unable to do your best until the outcome no longer matters to you (because the outcome is just another distraction). In photos, Martín has his haunted look, but Bagnaia continues to look cheerfully goofy. Bagnaia is seemingly not spooked by problems with the bike, either. He says he has complete confidence that his crew will know what to do. Both men have experienced anxiety at an intolerably high level. Both men function at a high level nevertheless.

Before the sprint, Martín said to his team manager, Gino Borsoi, “I will go for it. I don’t want to finish second, third. I want to win. If Pecco is stronger, he will win. If not, he won’t. Tomorrow is a bit the same: Try to do it. If Pecco is much stronger, it’s OK.” In other words, realism, not do-or-die.

Holding the point lead, all Martín must do is keep as many points as possible without accepting undue risk.

In Saturday’s sprint, Bagnaia lost the front on lap 3, in turn 9, and crashed. “As soon as I entered that corner I hit the bump that is there and I lost the front. It’s a shame but it is something that can happen. And I absolutely will not change my mentality and my mindset for tomorrow. I will go full send, try to win the race.”

Marc Márquez said, “[Bagnaia] was pushing. He did what he needed to do and tomorrow again he needs to take a risk and try to win the race because it’s his only chance to recover points.”

He went on to describe the track surface in the corner: “It’s on the perfect line. You have like three different asphalts, and at some point there is no asphalt.”

Enea Bastianini (factory Duc) said, “I lost the front in that corner two times, but I was more lucky than Pecco.” Meanwhile, Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Duc) called the approach to turn 9 “the most difficult braking on the circuit.” He spoke of “a lot of dips on the straight, so the bike tends to have a lot of vibrations.”

These are ripples, forged into braking zones by the tires of heavy racing cars.

“Then, when you lean to enter the left-hand corner the asphalt is very bad because it’s uphill and when cars go around it they scrape it a lot. There are two patches. The problem is that the perfect line would be to cut the big one, but there it is very ruined,” said The Beast.

It would appear that there is more to MotoGP than “Goin’ in deep an’ comin’ out hard.”

The sprint left Martín leading Bagnaia by 29 points, with Márquez 100 points away in third. Never mind. Another race, another opportunity. Start afresh, ready again to attempt perfection.

Sunday’s GP was stopped on lap 1 for a multi-rider collision that included Fabio Quartararo, Brad Binder, and Jack Miller. Quartararo’s spare bike was configured for rain, so making it usable took some time, and part-worn tires were all that was left. He would come through to finish sixth, a great encouragement for Yamaha people.

The press corps poured forth superlatives at the 19-lap restart, while TV watchers would pronounce the next three laps the most exciting they’d ever seen. There was no excitement on the part of the riders, who were attending to their own agendas: Bagnaia to take maximum points, Martín to win if possible but if not, to finish high while keeping clear of pursuers.

Martín saw that Bagnaia was unassailable and so he focused on guaranteeing second place. Both of them knew that continuing the battle could invite Márquez (third) to advance on them while their attention was on each other, and not their lap times. This is professional racing.

Bagnaia would go on to say, “Maybe it sounds strange, but today I didn’t feel under pressure. I felt comfortable on the bike right away, in every situation. I wasn’t worried at all about today. I knew what I had to do and I was ready to do it.”

And Martín? “From my side, maybe I had to be a bit more calm, but I felt I was able to fight with him. So I tried it, but at some point I thought, ‘OK, it’s too much risk, so wait behind.’

“The problem is that as soon as I went behind him everything started to work quite bad (see Marini’s remarks above). I also had Marc quite close so I had to push.”

“At some point I tried to recover to Pecco. I saw that he was struggling, and he went wide because of the very difficult conditions today. But then I made a mistake at corner 9 and I said, ‘OK, Jorge, that’s enough.’”

The tires, the setup, the high temperature, and what your lunch is doing all contribute to your lap time. If you measure success in championships rather than corners, you accept this. Yet fans cheer hardest for the do-or-die riders. The attraction is pure emotion, undiluted by cool Cartesian analysis.

After the race, Martín said, “I thank Pecco because thanks to his level I improved mine every day. We got stronger every day and we have never had a battle like this in our careers. We were always close but we never had a duel like what I was told were eleven overtakes in three laps.”

When asked why Bagnaia didn’t slow the race down to bring third and fourth place within range, Márquez (a “VIP spectator for that nice battle!”) suggested that, “The difference between [the two leaders] and the others was huge today. Bastianini finished 10 seconds behind Pecco!”

Really, there were two races.

Bagnaia, when asked the same question, rejected such tactics. “I’m not the type of guy that wants to be rude outside of the track, and needs to be rude on the track, and aggressive, pushing out, being the one who doesn’t respect my rivals.”

If all goes as planned, the championship will be decided in Barcelona in two weeks.