MotoGP | Bagnaia: “I chose Turn 5 for overtaking, I wanted to dispel it”

Pecco Bagnaia’s ability to react is no longer a secret, but it never ceases to amaze. Yesterday’s retirement of the Sprint, which occurred on the last lap when he was in the lead, seemed like a knockout blow. Or at least it would have been for many others, but not for the Ducati rider, who 24 hours later went on to take victory in the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix. A heavy success, which also has a strong symbolic value for the reigning world champion.

Until yesterday, in the last three editions he had always had to deal with races to forget: in 2022 Takaaki Nakagami had rammed him at the first corner, forcing him to retire. Last year, however, there was the bloody accident at the second corner, when, after a violent highside, Brad Binder’s KTM ran over his leg. An accident that had significantly complicated the second part of the season, making him sweat the title until the last race in the battle with Jorge Martin.

Yesterday he finally seemed ready to exorcise the Catalan track, but at turn 5 he lost the front and his race ended in the gravel of the escape route. And it is therefore curious that today the decisive overtaking against “Martinator” took place at that same point. But not random, as the Piedmontese himself told Sky Sport MotoGP.

“Yesterday I crashed because I did it too slowly, so I told myself that if I had to overtake I could do it there, where I could exaggerate a little more. As long as there is load on the front tyre, it’s difficult for it to close. I knew that I was very strong coming out of four and I threw myself into five, because the less I was behind Martin the better it was for the front tire. But I knew I had an advantage there”, said Bagnaia, who returned with today’s success 39 points behind Martin in the World Championship.

“I also chose it a bit on purpose, because I wanted to dispel this curve. But in general I really wanted to dispel the myth that I don’t finish the races here in Barcelona, ​​so it was necessary. It was very important, because yesterday we threw away a lot of points in a race that was a victory, but also for the meaning this track has for me because of what happened last year. Winning today really gives me pleasure”, he added.

This was the key moment, but it was probably the tactical management of the race that allowed Bagnaia to take home his third victory of the season, the 21st of his MotoGP career. In fact, when Martin and Pedro Acosta overtook him, Pecco preferred to continue at his own pace without forcing and this choice paid dividends over the distance.

“At the beginning I put myself in front to set the pace and it seemed like the right pace. Then Martin and Acosta overtook me and I tried to go behind them, but I saw that it was a bit of an exaggerated pace to make the tires last. So I set my pace and I saw that after a few laps they started to go like me and then even a bit slower.”

“I managed to remain very constant, then when I overtook Martin I immediately took a four-tenths of a margin, so I understood that I just had to pay attention to getting to the end, because I saw that I had more going into the corner and probably also going out on the right side. Today I almost did the five with my foot on the ground on the last lap to avoid problems (laughs)”, he concluded.