MotoGP | Bagnaia: “Martin and I gave 0″4 pace to the third”

Pecco Bagnaia was almost in disbelief at the end of the first day of practice for the MotoGP Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Even though the conditions were worse in terms of grip compared to the race two weeks ago, the Ducati rider stopped the clock at 1’30″286, managing to break the previous track record for the Misano circuit, which he himself had achieved in qualifying for the San Marino and Riviera di Rimini Grand Prix.

According to the reigning world champion, however, the explanation could be the lower temperature, even if this ended up creating problems for a good part of the grid, as demonstrated by the eight crashes in the afternoon session.

“It’s incredible considering the grip that was there. When the afternoon session started it was worse than the race two weeks ago, but today the weather came easier to me. Maybe the lower temperature helped us to be faster. I did 30.9s with the medium and then when I put on the soft I did 30.2s. The conditions were not the best, so I think tomorrow it will be possible to go down to the 29″, but we also have to consider that tomorrow morning it will be colder and we can’t go with the soft on the front, so the medium could be a bit complicated in the left turns”, Bagnaia said when he met with journalists at the end of the day.

In reality, then there is another key that makes much more sense, namely the fact that the Aragon blow is now over and he feels physically at 100% again: “It’s helping me a lot to be able to concentrate only on riding and on what my bike is asking of me. Last race instead I had to try to understand what to do with my body on the bike, so being able to concentrate only on riding makes a big difference, but also being at 100% physically. But we did a good job in terms of set-up, because in the test I hadn’t worked thinking about this race, but to try some things for next year”.

This Friday gave the feeling that this could be a great opportunity to see a good duel between him and the world championship leader Jorge Martin, because today they seemed to be on another level compared to the competition: “I think that Jorge and I made the difference on everyone. In the time attack a little, but on the race pace even four tenths on the third. We’ll see tomorrow, because the others will surely improve, but Jorge and I will be among the strongest. In the time attack, in my opinion he did the first lap with a little more caution, while I tried to push straight away, in fact I did 30″8, while he did 31″6 and then to do the second time attack he fell. But in general we are more or less similar also in terms of pace”.

After the two second places in the first race at Misano, he was asked if he has a certain desire for revenge, but Pecco seems very focused on the championship: “I feel I have another opportunity to earn some points, I feel it more in this direction here”.

Finally, he was asked what he thinks of Michelin’s decision not to introduce the new front tyre that he had loved in the test last Monday, perhaps even advertising it a little too much, starting next year: “Many people were perhaps scared (laughs). It’s true that we tried it in particular conditions, because the grip was fantastic on the day of the test. With this tyre I can brake harder and enter corners faster. For me it’s a great help, but it’s not the same for everyone. Maybe it would have been better to say that it was good, but without exaggerating. Let’s say that I learned a new lesson (laughs).”