Difficult Saturday
Buriram Saturday was not unforgettable for Pecco Bagnaia. Coming sixth in the morning’s qualifying, the Ducati champion actually finished in Sprint placed seventh, leaving nine points on the field to the advantage of Jorge Martin, who instead won for the fifth consecutive time in this race format. Bagnaia actually paradoxically limited the damage, given that at a certain point he had actually fallen to ninth position.
Problems at start
What penalized the race of the #1 from Borgo Panigale was one difficult start and a few too many duels in which he found himself involved during the first laps: “The start in terms of numbers was actually very good – commented the Italian to the microphones of Sky Sports MotoGP at the end of the race – but the problem is that I didn’t find the clutch in the place I expected. I switched off later than normal and this made me lose my reactivity. Unfortunately now if you don’t start well it becomes tough afterwards: at the first corner I found myself bottled up and I tried to get out in the best position, but once all those on the outside close in on you it becomes difficult”.
Too many duels
At that point the leader of the world championship classification had to fight with a knife between his teeth: “I lost a lot on the first lap with Zarco, who overtook a bit at the limit – explained Pecco – but most of all I lost a lot of time for the 2-3 laps in which I had a somewhat useless battle to the death with Alex Marquez. We lost a life there.” At the end he attempted a comeback which, with a few more laps, could have allowed him to gain more points: “As always happens, the others make much more use of the rear tire at the start and then run into difficulty at the end. I recovered 1.6 seconds and in the mid-race phase I was faster, but it wasn’t enough. Unfortunately, when you get a bad start and lose time, it’s difficult to recover, especially in a Sprint“.
Towards the GP
Now the focus is on tomorrow’s race, in which he will be fundamental avoid getting ‘bogged down’ in the group. “The grip was good and we went fast all weekend. I can push well even with used tyres, so I would have expected more, but I lost too much time. Those 2 seconds didn’t allow me to fight for the podium. Today, however, I understood some things, especially in the third sector. With the hard tire I definitely feel better, as always, and it will be important to get a good start tomorrow. I’m not worried about tire wear, because we’re in good shape, but we will have to be smart and good at getting out of certain fights“. Finally Bagnaia returned to explain in detail the problems he had at the start: “The clutch is made of carbon and varies a lot based on the temperature. It’s very hot here and it may be that it has a different break. On the formation lap I tried the start and it was normal, while 1 and a half minutes later he was further ahead, so I lost on the take-off. We’re usually very consistent, so I think it was a coincidence“.
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