Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin feel there is no reason why they should be “enemies outside the track” as they fight for the 2024 MotoGP title.

For a second season in a row, Bagnaia and Martin have been in a class of their own in MotoGP, with their championship battle set to culminate in next week’s Barcelona finale.

Their rivalry has taken place against the backdrop of Pramac rider Martin being snubbed for a promotion to the factory Ducati team next year, with six-time champion Marc Marquez instead being chosen for the coveted seat alongside Bagnaia.

While the changes instigated by Ducati made Martin lose faith in the Borgo Panigale marque and forge a new career path with Aprilia from 2025, he hasn’t allowed that decision to have any impact on his relationship with Bagnaia.

The Italian, too, has returned the favour, with both repeatedly emphasising the respect they have for each other as rivals.

Speaking again about the matter after engaging in an epic early battle for victory in the Malaysian GP, Bagnaia reiterated his intention to maintain a cordial relationship with his championship rival.

“For me it is very easy [to maintain harmony with Martin] because I’m not the type of guy that wants to be rude outside of the track and then need to be rude inside of the track or to be aggressive – pushing out and being the one that doesn’t respect rivals,” he said.

“I have never been like this and I will never be like this. If in case Jorge will start to do it, I will change, but Jorge is more or less the same as me. 

“Surely, respect is the main thing and will always be like this from my point of view. So I don’t understand why we need to be enemies outside of the track, not speak to each other and be rude. I prefer [it] like this.”

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing, Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Dorna

Both Martin and Bagnaia raced for Aspar Mahindra in Moto3 back in 2015 and have been a part of the grand prix paddock ever since.

That helped establish a solid foundation to their relationship, with the intensity of a title fight not enough to put a dent in the respect they have for each other on and off the track.

“We [have] known each other since 2015. We were really close friends in the past,” Martin said. “Now we no longer have that relationship but we are good to each other. 

“As he said, it’s no sense to [be enemies]. We can fight, you saw on Sunday, it’s an amazing battle for history. 

“Maybe not the last laps, but it was amazing [overall] and then we can speak about it. I think we both enjoyed it. 

“And as he said, if it’s like this in the future, for me it will be perfect, and I hope it will be like this always.”

MARIO BALOTELLI took just five minutes to pick up a yellow card in his return to Serie A.

The striker joined Genoa as a free agent last week after going a few months without a club.

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Balotelli was brought on as an 86th minute substitute with his side 1-0 up thanks to a goal from Andrea Pinamonti.

With the game winding down to a close Balotelli managed to get himself booked.

He was cautioned for a foul in the 90th minute, which means he has picked up a yellow and a red in his last six minutes of football.

The Italian was sent off in his last appearance for Demirspor at the end of last season.

Balotelli, 34, penned a deal until the end of the season with Genoa – the 12th club of his career.

Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano claims he only wanted to join Genoa following extensive talks with manager Alberto Gilardino.

The former Italy international appeared thrilled as he met with a group of supporters.

Balotelli is back in Serie A after three years away, having had two spells at Adana Demirspor either side of a brief stint at Sion.

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But the former Manchester City star has vowed to “smash” the league, saying: “Just because I wasn’t in Serie A (in recent years), what I did doesn’t count? F*** off, you and Serie A.

“It’s a promise, I’ll smash Serie A when I sign (for a new club), I’ll smash this f***ing Serie A.”

The FA Cup first round proper is complete, with non-league sides Tamworth and Kettering claiming two of the biggest upsets as they knocked out Huddersfield and Northampton respectively.

There were some great goals scored over the round too – we have compiled a shortlist of 10 of the best and want you to vote for your favourite.

For the first time since the pair started sharing the Formula 1 grid, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly joined each other on the podium of a grand prix, capitalising on a bold strategy in a wet Interlagos classic to finish second and third behind the untouchable Max Verstappen.

It was a huge boost to Alpine, the team gaining three places in the constructors’ championship and finally getting a tangible reward for the hard work of its crew after a bruising season with the underperforming 2024 car.

The scintillating Sao Paulo classic was not just season-defining for Alpine: on a human level, it will also forever define Ocon’s and Gasly’s at times fraught relationship.

Growing up close to each other in eastern Normandy, Ocon and Gasly crossed paths as kids and became best friends, spending lots of time together racing go-karts.

As they moved up the ladder their relationship soured, seemingly beyond repair, and therefore Gasly joining Ocon as a team-mate at Alpine for 2023 raised some eyebrows in the paddock. Ocon admitted “we are never going to be best friends” at the time, while Gasly acknowledged his relationship would be vastly different to the one he enjoyed with Yuki Tsunoda before.

Esteban Ocon, Alpine F1 Team, 2nd position, Pierre Gasly, Alpine F1 Team, 3rd position, celebrate in Parc Ferme

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Naturally there have been some flashpoints on track, just like Ocon had with some previous team-mates – Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez – and both drivers fought their corner hard over team strategy as you would expect any F1 racers to do.

In 2023 there was a collision in Melbourne, in their fourth race together, and this year the pair also came to blows when Ocon lunged down the inside of Gasly in Monaco, damaging both cars and angering both Gasly and Alpine’s management. Soon after Ocon announced his departure from the team, signing with Haas for 2025, which defused some of the tension but also seemed to acknowledge that Ocon’s arrival at the Enstone team hadn’t really worked out for either party.

But while the pair has always maintained they work well together off-track, it feels like their wholesome podium in Brazil has further thawed their once frosty relations. They didn’t just revel in their hard-earned success on the back of an abysmal year with Alpine, but the perilous wet race in Interlagos appeared to unlock a warm feeling of nostalgia to better days. A time when they were also racing at the front in fraught conditions, as 10-year-old prodigies of Normandy’s go-karting scene.

As the pair gave a joint interview in front of broadcaster Viaplay’s cameras, Ocon turned to his fellow Norman: “Do you remember when we were driving in Anneville in the rain?”, to which Gasly revealed their race had brought back the same memories.

“Yeah, even in the snow! We were driving in the snow and the rain. It’s the same as it was back in the day when we were the only ones showing up at the track in the rain, freezing cold. But it was all worth it.”

“It paid off today,” Ocon nodded after his car control in the Brazilian rain yielded him second. “When we did that formation and the in-lap, that was the first thing that came to my mind. What a beautiful story, that.”

Even back when Gasly joined Ocon at Alpine last year, the significance of their unlikely pairing was not lost on them. Two kids from the same part of France – Gasly from the Rouen area and Ocon from the nearby town of Evreux – both making it through the complicated journey to Formula 1 to end up as team-mates.

Now they have another fond memory to look back on after their careers, when perhaps their rivalry will be a relic of the past.

“This is the moment of a lifetime,” said Gasly. “As kids from where we came from, to end up as team-mates was already against all odds, but to end up on the same podium…

“Nobody knows our story, it’s something personal to us. But regardless of everything that happened, a day like today makes it very special.

“It’s a beautiful story.”

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A CHINESE snooker player who was involved in last year’s match-fixing storm will compete in UK Championship qualifying this month.

Zhao Xintong has the chance to scoop the £250,000 top prize after being announced as one of 16 elite amateurs to take part in the early rounds of the second-biggest event on the professional snooker calendar.

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Qualifying rounds take place in Leicester between November 16-21 and then the top 16 progress to the York Barbican where they could face the likes of reigning world champion Kyren Wilson, world No.1 Judd Trump and the sport’s greatest player, Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Should Xintong – winner of the UK Championship crown in 2021 – progress through four rounds of qualifiers at the Mattioli Arena, he will appear in the latter stages on BBC TV later this month.

Yet even though he has earned his spot by merit – he was triumphant in event three on the WPBSA Q Tour Europe – his involvement in such a prestigious tournament is a controversial one.

In June 2023, Xintong was one of ten Chinese players charged with match-fixing offences by an independent World Professional Billiards and Snooker association (WPBSA) disciplinary commission.

He was given a two-year and six-month suspension and ordered to pay £7,500 in costs.

This ban was reduced following early admissions and his plea of guilty to one year and eight months – and that ban expired on September 2, 2024.

None of the other nine disgraced stars have served the full length of their suspensions.

According to the disciplinary commission, the former top-10 player accepted in March 2022 that “he was a party to another player fixing two snooker matches”.

And between September 1, 2019 and December 31, 2022, “he bet on snooker matches in breach of the rules”.

Xintong, 27, is no longer on the World Snooker Tour but has the chance to regain a Tour Card in Qualifying School in the summer of 2025.

Lifetime bans were slapped on ringleaders Liang Wenbo and Li Hang.

Xintong’s involvement in the investigation last year shocked many within the sport, especially given that he is someone well-respected for his talents.

O’Sullivan, the seven-time world champion, once tipped the cueist nicknamed the Cyclone for his rapid style of play to go on and become the “best player in the world”.

Speaking after Xintong crushed Luca Brecel 10-5 to lift the UK title three years ago, the Rocket said: “If he can stand up and show pressure, there is no player on the circuit that has the complete game like him.

“He is like Steve Davis but with Jimmy White’s talent. Very, very scary.”