MotoGP | Mea culpa Bagnaia: “My mistake, I apologized to the team”

Pecco Bagnaia’s magical ride came to an end this Saturday at Silverstone. The reigning world champion finished the Sprint with five laps to spare, ending up in the gravel at Turn 4. A mistake by the Ducati rider that saw his dominance reduced to a minimum. The Piedmontese now heads into Sunday’s race as the leader, but with just one point ahead of Jorge Martin.

Somehow saving Bagnaia’s championship dominance was Enea Bastianini, winner right in front of the Spaniard from the Pramac team, who finished second today. However, Pecco is focused on himself and on the mistake he made on this English Saturday to significantly change the weekend in the long race: “That corner has been going particularly well for me all weekend, but today I knocked it out. It wasn’t an easy start, because at the start the rear lowering device remained hooked. I took the first two corners like that and everyone passed me again.”

Fourth at the first corners, once the lowering device was released, Bagnaia found his pace again, quickly arriving on the heels of Aleix Espargaro, third. However, in his haste to recover and get back to the top, he made a mistake: “On the first lap and a half I wasn’t feeling good with the rear tire, I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted. Maybe because of the temperature of the tire… But after that it went well, I don’t know, but I started to really go fast. Everything was perfect, in a lap and a half I was back behind Aleix”.

“I came out really hard from Turn 3, I anticipated the entry into Turn 4 and I lost. It’s my mistake, I’ve already apologized to the team, it’s right like this. It’s also easier to understand, because when you know why you crashed you can resolve things better. I’m extremely dizzy, but I can’t do anything about it. The real race is tomorrow,” explained Bagnaia, who is swallowing the bitter pill of the crash, but is aiming to redeem himself in the long race.

The return from the summer break was not particularly fortunate for Bagnaia, who saw the fall as the culmination of some particular episodes. On Friday his suit came undone and in this morning’s qualifying the sponsor sticker came off above the visor of his helmet, preventing him from doing a lap and forcing him to slow down to get rid of it: “Yesterday I didn’t hook the suit properly when I was leaving the box and it came open. Today the helmet… Maybe it was a carelessness, in six years nothing has ever happened, but then things always happen at the worst moments. It was a shame, because we could have improved. I don’t know if I would have beaten Aleix, because he did an incredible time, but at least I could have tried. I had managed to get away from the group, I was in front, I had a bit of a perfect situation”.