The sleepless night
A dream weekend ends with the third consecutive victory at Mugello Francesco Bagnaia, protagonist of a success achieved after a memorable start. Starting from the fifth spot on the grid, the reigning world champion managed to overtake three riders on the outside of the San Donato, and then immediately passed Jorge Martin at the entrance to the next corner, thus taking the lead and never relinquishing it until the checkered flag. A brilliant action by a driver who, waiting to take part in the race in front of his warm and numerous fan club, practically didn’t sleep a wink: “I admit that I didn’t sleep until 6am last night – he confessed to Sky Sports MotoGP – I’ll go to bed early tonight because there are tests tomorrow, but I’m still young and I can afford it. It was fantastic, we knew how important the start was and I concentrated on doing it in the best possible way. It was essential to stay on the outside at the first corner and try to get an advantage and then dive in at turn 2 to pass Jorge. From that moment on we knew we could manage the race, but until you put in the work you struggle, so it was fundamental.”
The starting strategy
An impeccable start therefore from the #1, who had already studied the ways to immediately move to the head of the group after the three-place grid penalty inflicted for having obstructed Alex Marquez during Friday’s practice: “I wanted to beat the Qatar record, when I went 1st in 32 seconds, here I took less – he added – doing things blindly never pays, you always have to be able to do the right thing at the right time. The intuition was the right one and I thought about it, but it’s never easy. You try strategies, but it’s never easy to replicate them, so it was essential to stay clear because when I saw that Jorge had been a bit conservative at the exit of 1, I thought about throwing myself into 2, and it worked. It was too important, like in Qatar.”
Tire management
An undertaking at the start that has added to the attention tire management throughout the race, explained in detail by the Ducati rider who arrived on the podium together with his teammate Enea Bastianini, for a celebration made even more electrifying by the double of the Borgo Panigale team, ‘dressed’ in blue on the day of the celebration of the Republic: “It was strange because I couldn’t be consistent with the times, but I had to do it like this: when I pushed I had trouble with the front, it closed a lot, so the only strategy I could implement was to a quick lap and a cool down. Era the only way to keep that gap, it wasn’t a normal strategy but it paid off. In the 2nd lap I was able to give that extra bit of hair that I was then able to manage the next lap.”
The party with the fans to forget Barcelona
A victory that comes a week after the crash that occurred in Barcelona on the last lap of the Sprint Race. An episode that helped ‘Pecco’ gain even more experience while waiting for the race at Mugello, on a weekend in which the Ducati rider experienced strong emotions given by his fans: “The mistakes I make always serve as a lesson to me – he concluded – the crash in Barcelona made me understand that with our bike you can’t even afford to do something slightly different. You have to be very precise and always in the same position. You have to try to be as clean as possible, and it’s not easy, but falling always serves as a lesson. I see that people are excited, and honestly it’s not easy. This morning a fan gave me a letter that almost made me cry, every time I heard the audience scream it thrilled me. I’ve been very sensitive these days, but affection like this is something you always carry inside, you can’t forget it. it’s wonderful. Now we arrive at tracks that will be good for us but also for others, so the important thing will be to be consistent.”
#Bagnaia #exalted #Mugello #cool #didnt #sleep
