Jorge’s ‘gift’
He had never won before today at the Sachsenring Pecco Bagnaia. The abstinence broke in what the Italian champion himself jokingly defined as his “last race as a bachelor“, given that he will be getting married to his girlfriend Domizia in the summer. However, success only materialized on the penultimate lap, in the form of the sensational fall that hit Jorge Martin – until then the leader of the Grand Prix – in turn 1. A slip that probably changes the fate of the championship: the Spaniard from the Ducati-Pramac team in fact goes from a potential +20 to a dangerous -10 in the standings. The inertia is now completely in the hands of the reigning champion.
Challenge to the limit
“The pressure I put on Martin? Sooner or later one of us had to do something – Bagnaia commented to the microphones of Sky Sport MotoGP, suggesting that one of the two antagonists was ‘doomed’ to make mistakes – the last laps of the race were on nothing: the front was closing, the rear was going and we had no traction, but we continued to push for fast times. The lap before Martin’s crash I lost the front tooThe first one to give up would lose. I just thought ‘I don’t give up until the end’. Martin knew I was faster in the sector. In the last laps the front was always closing. When I got closer I saw that he was pushing. We were making an incredible pace. Sooner or later something had to happen to one of them, pushing them so far.“.
A question of strategies
On a personal and professional level this is truly perfect moment for the Ducati #1, but Bagnaia was keen to claim that this is a result he ‘earned’ on the field: “The planets didn’t align, we made them align. The start of the season wasn’t easy, but we did a great job. We weren’t the favorites here, but we got ready to fight for the win. The tires struggled, especially at the front. This is the fourth win in a row, the last as a bachelor. I pushed straight away, but when I got to the front it seemed like the temperature of the tire on the right, especially at the back, had dropped. In turn 1 I couldn’t stop, I had to brake early. Jorge and Franco passed me there, so I tried to bring the temperature back up and it worked. If I had stuck with them straight away I wouldn’t have had any at the end of the race“. Confirmation of how tactical cunning is more than ever the Italian champion’s extra weapon.
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