MotoGP | Bagnaia: “I gave everything to stay ahead, important victory”

There are still nine races left in the season, but today in Austria Pecco Bagnaia has already equaled his record of victories. The success at the Red Bull Ring, with which he repeated yesterday’s Sprint win, is already his seventh of 2024. As many as those he had achieved in the two previous years, in which he ultimately became world champion.

But Spielberg’s victory is inevitably destined to become a milestone in the Ducati rider’s career, because it is his 25th in the premier class, which projects him into the all-time top 10, alongside a sacred monster of two wheels like Kevin Schwantz.

When this was pointed out to him, in fact, Pecco did not hide his emotion to the microphones of Sky Sport MotoGP: “It’s something I don’t look at that much, but there’s little to add, it’s an incredible emotion: you grow up with idols, legends, more than anything you hear about them, and knowing that you’ve reached these numbers is something crazy”.

Impressive numbers, which however have not yet allowed him to take off in the world standings, in which he must try to beat a stubborn opponent like Jorge Martin, who follows him at a distance of just 5 points. Even in Austria he was the most difficult obstacle to overcome, even if the key was to immediately find the overtaking on the second lap. Then Bagnaia gave the impression of always having the situation under control. Something that he himself confirmed during the usual interviews.

“The strategy was to get to the front as soon as possible. Here we always have problems with the front pressure and the temperature of the tyres. Yesterday, when it was hotter, it was 114 degrees, which is incredible for the front. Today it was maybe a little less, but when you are behind someone the temperature becomes too high. So it was important to stay in front. I knew I had the pace to win and I gave everything to stay in front,” Pecco said.

“I was trying to manage a pace that was maybe a little faster than Martin’s, but he came behind me, so I knew that at the end of the race he wouldn’t have had the pace to get to the bottom. When I saw that he started to increase his times, I tried to maintain them for another 3-4 laps to open the gap up to two seconds,” Pecco said.

“From there on it was all easier, even though in the last laps we had no more rubber, especially when we were doing the pick-up the bike started to spin from the straight, so you never know what can happen in those situations. But I’m extremely happy, because we did a great job. Winning both races here is very important and fantastic,” he added.

When asked why he is so keen on winning in Austria, where he has won for three consecutive years, including Sprint, he continued: “In terms of things to do while riding, this is one of the most difficult tracks, but it suits our characteristics. The tyres wear out a lot and you have to work a lot on the bike both in terms of braking and with the lowering system. Then you have to change maps several times, so it is one of the most difficult tracks on a technical level and being able to keep a pace like that is really nice, so it gave me great pleasure”.

One of the points where he was able to visually make the difference was the exit of turn 10, the one that leads onto the starting straight, which probably gave him the right push to find the decisive overtaking move on Martin during the second lap.

“I use the compression on the exit to turn the bike and it’s something that I do quite well, but maybe also because my set-up allows it. I can be quite straight when it’s time to accelerate, so I can generate less spin and the traction is very good. It’s something I’ve been able to do since my Moto2 days and this year it’s even better. You always have to use the compressions when they’re there (laughs).”

Finally, he told a curious episode, linked to a tear-off that refused to come off: “Despite everything, I did the fastest lap on that lap. I probably braked harder because I didn’t see the braking point well. An insect basically squashed in front of my eyes right when I was braking and it was a bit of a panic moment. I pulled the tear-off off, but it didn’t come off right away. Let’s say I’ve been having some stumbles with this thing for a couple of races.”