Enea Bastianini says he is still “ܫcompletely free” to race Jorge Martin and Francesco B𓃲agnaia in this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix as the MotoGP title gets its first match point.

After winning the Thai GP last weekend, Bagnaia has cut Martin’s lead in the stan☂dings down to 17 points with just tw𝄹o rounds to go.

But the gap for Martin means this weekend’s Sepang event represents his first opportunity to wrap up the championship, with the Pramac rider 💜needing to outscore Bagnaia by 21 po꧋ints to avoid a final round showdown.

Winner of last year’s Malaysian GP and always competitive at the Sepang track, Bastianini is being eyed up as a possible thorn in the side of the two title challengers as ༺he also looks to beat Marc Marquez to third in the standings.

After Thailand, Bastianini said he would n♏ot turn to being a tailgunner for team-mate Bagnaia this weekend and confirmed on Thursday at Sepang that he has not been given any instructions from Ducati to do so either.

“Yeah, I’m completely free,” he said when asked by mahbx.com if he’s had any t💮eam orders.

“ I have also me something to bring at the end of the s෴eason, I can bring that third place.

“I am really close to that. Also Marquez, also me, in the last period have committed ༒some mi🃏stakes and we have lost some points.

“But I need to close tha🏅t small back to try to fight 💞with him in Valencia.”

With the ongoing flooding in the Valencia region, it is unclear at th🍃is stage whether the championship will be concluded at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in November.

Bastianini’s win at Sepang last year marked 𝄹his first as a factory team Ducati rider and came amid a difficult season of adapting to the GP23.

Explaining why he is so competitive at the Malaysian venue, Bastianini said: “ཧIt’s one of my favourite trackꦛs.

“I have a really good memory of last year because afte🐟r a difficult pe🍃riod arrived that victory.

“And it was so emotional for me. It’s difficult 🅰to rep𒅌eat that result; that result will not be easy. But I’m here to try to do it.

“Probably because one of my st♍rongest points is the corners on the right side, and also the fast corne⭕rs on the right side.

“Here we have too much of this and usually when we compare 𓆉the data in that point, I’m much stronger compared to the other Ducati riders.

“But never say never. We have to try tomorrow and to se🥀e if I can be competitive🔥 because every year is different.”