MotoGP | Bagnaia: “One lap and 2 corners of intense battle, then I stopped pushing”

From the outside it seemed very easy, but winning is never easy. And the success in the Sprint at the Red Bull Ring was important for Pecco Bagnaia, because it allowed him to catch up with his rival Jorge Martin who is tied on points at the top of the world championship standings. The first two laps were spectacular, with a truly exciting duel between the two, but it was in the second lap that the episode that changed the face of the race occurred.

“Martinator” slipped inside the Ducati rider at the 2A-2B chicane, but went long and cut into the escape route. Even though he gave Pecco back his position, he didn’t lose the second allowed by the rules in these cases, so he received a long lap penalty. At that point, by the Piedmontese’s own admission, it was a matter of managing. Even more so when Marc Marquez also fell behind him. Even though the #93’s slide allowed Martin to earn two points and keep himself on par in the World Championship.

“The moment he went straight, I knew he had to lose a second, but instead I saw that he was always three or five tenths behind. So, either he had done a crazy lap to still be there or they had to give him something. The moment they gave him the long lap penalty I stopped pushing, because the soft tyre at the back was really at the limit, so I simply preferred to get to the finish line,” Bagnaia told Sky Sport MotoGP.

“Then when I saw that Marc had also crashed, I actually raised my times because there was no need anymore: I had a four and a half second advantage and that was fine. But it was nice, because we did a lap and two corners of very intense battle. And we did the fastest lap fighting, going only two tenths slower than last year’s pole,” he added.

The duel in the first two laps was very close and highlighted the great respect between him and Jorge: “It’s normal that it’s like this. We’re fighting for the same goal and we’re always the two fastest. Let’s say that the fight was very intense, but the priority is always to be first, because in the end if you stay behind you have the problem of the pressure of the front tire. It was more a fight to have 3-4 clean laps, but we fought hard”.

Without a doubt, his coolness in reading the most critical moment of the race, that of Martin’s cut, was impressive: “More than anything, I’m always careful when they explain the rules to us. Objectively, he lost time, but that’s the rule. I wondered if he had lost the second, but it seemed difficult because I had lapped in 1’28″7. In the end, however, it went exactly as I had imagined”.

When asked if losing the second is a complicated operation to do, he explained: “On the bike you have the times of the sectors and you know that you also have the two sectors after the one where you cut to lose the second, so he could have understood it quite well.”

Before the crash, Marquez had given the impression that he could get closer, but Bagnaia explained that in reality everything was under control: “I saw that I had a 1″6 advantage and I did a slightly slower lap, because I was also managing the maps, because I needed data for tomorrow. I wanted to understand if you can go fast even with a slightly less loaded map. When I saw that he was getting closer anyway, I immediately put the other map back because it wasn’t the right time yet”.