His rival Jorge Martin was the star of the day, but Pecco Bagnaia can be satisfied with the Friday with which he kicked off the second part of the 2024 MotoGP at Silverstone. The leader of the World Championship is struggling with a Desmosedici GP that is still a little too nervous, but this did not stop him from finishing with the third fastest time, just over a tenth behind the pursuer in the title race.
“It went quite well, although I’m not 100% satisfied, because we have some work to do. The bike tends to be very nervous and it creates a few problems for me, but we’ve already made a big step forward since this morning and tomorrow we’ll make another. We’re not far away, because we’re all there,” Bagnaia said at the end of the day.
“Martin is a little faster at the moment and is doing very well in T3, but I already know why: he keeps some margin at the entrance to make everything faster, while I am ‘hanging’ myself a little too much. So I am satisfied with the day, but there is work to be done”, he added.
Among other things, today it seemed that the best tyre for the front was the hard, but the Ducati rider worked only with the medium, which he believes is more suited to the cooler weather conditions expected for tomorrow and Sunday.
“Martin did a 1’58″8 with a 13-lap rear tyre, but he had changed the front tyre. The hard was definitely the right choice today, also seeing how it behaved with those who used it, but we worked with the medium because it looks like tomorrow could be colder, so we wanted to understand this tyre, which is quite new, because on Sunday the temperature should be even lower.”
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The most fearsome opponents are always the same, even if perhaps there is someone who has not lived up to his expectations: “I thought Marquez would be a little faster, but on this track he has always struggled a little. I expected a faster Aprilia and instead we are already there, even if usually they are the ones who go faster here in the race”.
“Martin instead showed what I would have expected, but we are close. At the moment he is a bit faster, but it was my best Friday at Silverstone, because here I always struggled on the first day and instead I was fast straight away. For this I am satisfied, but we have to close the gap a bit, especially in T3”, he continued.
Today Ducati made it official that VR46 will become its factory supported team from next season, but also that there will only be a third GP25, contrary to Pecco’s hope that the satellite structure would also have two.
“I don’t think it will be a big disadvantage, but four bikes are better than three, because they allow you to collect more data and understand more things. Also, in the tests you can split the program with one more rider. But these things are not up to me to decide,” he concluded.
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