Pecco Bagnaia saved a podium after a difficult race in Mandalika. The Italian was unable to fight for the first places, paying in particular for a bad start. While he had managed to gain two positions immediately during the sprint, this time he reared and skated, nevertheless retaining his fourth place at the first corner, before being swallowed up by Marco Bezzecchi and Franco Morbidelli before the end of the first lap.
“[Il faut remédier aux départs] as quickly as possible because the last two seasons, I have always been perfect at the start, and in the last four Grands Prix, since Aragón, I always start differently, and always badly”lamented Bagnaia, interviewed by the official MotoGP website.
“Today was different [de samedi]yesterday it wasn’t too bad but this morning it was good, this afternoon I reared up and skated. Luckily I didn’t lose any positions but I was a little cautious on the first lap and lost places. It was my fault.”
Bagnaia then experienced a “course intense”. In the first laps he had to fight with Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marc Márquez, but in the end he was able to stay in front of them. After 20 loops, he was still sixth and that’s where his race changed: he took advantage of Enea Bastianini’s fall then got rid of Bezzecchi, not without difficulty, and finally Morbidelli, to see the arriving in third place: “It was almost impossible to overtake Bezzecchi, with the GP23 they have a little more traction than us and it was hard.”
Pecco Bagnaia
Photo de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“As soon as I overtook him, it was much easier with Franky because with the same bike [la Ducati version 2024]I knew much better what was going on. But it was hard, very hard. Third place is very good today, we gained three points in the championship compared to the start [du week-end] and that is acceptable.”
Just before overtaking Morbidelli, Bagnaia activated the height control of his Ducati, which he did not do every lap, a maneuver which recalled the use of DRS in F1: “I was only using it one second from the driver in front of me! [rires] It depended on my exit from turn 8. If I exited with a lot of angle, there was no point in using it because it could make you slide even more. This time I came out really well so I used it and it definitely helped.”
Being forced to race behind other drivers slowed Bagnaia down: “I had a very good pace but when I was behind the group, I had a lot of trouble with the front tire, braking hard and I was losing time.”
“For me, it’s because when I have no one in front, I can compensate for the lack of rear grip when braking, saving a lot of time like that”added Bagnaia. “When you’re behind, you can’t brake hard, you can’t attack as you want and the rear tire is really not ready. It’s really a thing specific to the GP24 when you’re behind. After four or six laps, I had found my rhythm, I was quite strong, but I missed the first four or five laps.”
Jorge Martín and Pecco Bagnaia
Photo de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
By taking third place while Jorge Martín won, Pecco Bagnaia lost nine points on his rival this Sunday, after taking back 12 on Saturday when he won the sprint and the Spaniard scored zero points. The situation is therefore changing little in the championship but Bagnaia gives a rather satisfactory assessment of his weekend.
“We both did our best. I think for Jorge it was important to win because he hadn’t done it for Le Mans, it’s important for his mentality. And for me, it’s It was important to regain points. We managed to regain points, we reduced the gap in the championship a little, by three points. We are at 21. [points] now it is less than in Misano. It’s just a starting point and we will have to continue like this.”
