Even on Saturday in Valencia we returned to talking about tyres, but this time Pecco Bagnaia admitted that he was the one who made the wrong choice. The Ducati rider was in an excellent condition, because he started from the front row while his rival Jorge Martin was in the second, but he opted for a conservative solution, mounting the medium on the rear while most of the big names chose the soft for Sprint.
A choice that paid dearly, because while his opponent managed to achieve his ninth victory of the season in a short race, he had to settle for fifth place in the finish. This means that tomorrow they will enter the decisive race of the season with a lead reduced to 14 points. Which in any case would allow him to be champion even if he repeated today’s result. However, the Ducati rider was honest today and took on his responsibilities.
“We made the wrong choice of rear tyre, because the soft proved to be a better choice and with the medium I lost a lot of time in the first phase of acceleration. But tomorrow I will definitely make the same choice as Jorge”, said Bagnaia.
“Our goal was to try to win and still be in the top five in case he were to win, because with the same result tomorrow I would be champion. This morning, however, I felt really good with the average, but I think it was valid for all those who used it. I expected it to be faster and Vinales also agreed. It was a shame, because unfortunately we threw away a good opportunity to have more points for tomorrow. But we need to stay calm and calm and think about tomorrow,” he added
The lead has shrunk, but until mathematics offers a definitive verdict, according to Pecco the pressure is still the same: “Let’s say that being ahead is a better situation. Even if in certain situations being the one behind and having nothing to lose, it puts you in a position to be able to push 100%. I think the pressure is exactly the same for both of us and we will have to play our cards in the best possible way.”
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
The strategy for tomorrow is still to be planned, but it will clearly also depend on what happens in the first corners and the positions in which he and the Prima Pramac Racing rider will find themselves: “It depends, if Martin is first I will definitely go on the attack , because I can’t wait that long. Last year we were in an easier situation. I’ll do my best: if I start well and I’m in front I’ll try to push. Then when there are about ten laps to go we’ll have to evaluate the situation to understand if we have a little margin to play for.”
If nothing else, there is a sort of cabal that can make him smile when thinking about tomorrow, because in this last remnant of the season he almost always got slapped on Saturday, but then got up and reacted on Sunday. And that’s what he needs tomorrow.
“I’m happy with this, because the one that has the race title is the one on Sunday and it’s important to be strong there. But given that there are two different situations in the championship, we will definitely need to take a step forward in the Sprints, because it’s practically half season that I lose on Saturday and then on Sunday I go strong.”
When he was then asked if at the beginning of the year he would have thought that the championship could reach this epilogue, he explained: “I would have imagined that our opponent would have been a Ducati and that we would arrive so far ahead and play for the championship so far ahead it was a possibility, considering everyone’s level and that there would have been the Sprints, which at the beginning helped me but now they cheated me. Surely the mistakes I made and the misfortunes we had relegated us a bit to this situation, because in any case we are first in the championship, and we have been so for practically the whole season, with five zeros on Sunday and three on Saturday. We even went looking for it a bit.”
Finally, on the long night that awaits him, he concluded: “I hope to sleep. Last year I slept well, but I don’t know. Last year I saw a stupid film the evening before the decisive race, tonight I’m with Domizia and we’ll see what to do.”
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