In life, sometimes 24 hours are enough to completely change your mood and outlook. Even more so it can happen in that of a driver and to confirm it just ask Pecco Bagnaia today, at the end of the Indonesian Grand Prix. After a Saturday to forget, with elimination in Q1 and just an eighth place in the Sprint, which had allowed Jorge Martin to overtake him by eight points, the Ducati rider followed up with a Sunday that we can truly define as the other side of the medal.
Starting very well from the 13th spot on the grid, the reigning world champion moved back to third in the space of just three laps. When Martin fell down midway through the race while he was in a solitary breakaway, the Piedmontese made an extra effort to catch Maverick Vinales’ Aprilia, launching himself towards a victory, his sixth of the season, which only yesterday seemed like pure utopia. And which instead puts him back at the top of the world championship standings with an 18-point margin over the Prima Pramac Racing rider from Madrid.
“After Barcelona we went through a lot, so we really needed a result like this. We fought a lot and I didn’t feel good in various situations. When it’s like this, you struggle to push as much as you would like”, said Bagnaia, commenting on the his success on Sky Sport MotoGP.
“So, I thanked my team a lot, especially the electronics, because this morning we managed to take a final step that helped me a lot to push as much as I would have liked. We managed to find a solution and it’s fantastic. We really deserved it and I’m really proud,” he added.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
After a defeat like yesterday’s, it couldn’t have been easy to maintain mental calm, so Pecco was asked what was the key to reacting so well today.
“I always try to surround myself with people who love me and I must say that I’m lucky, because I really have a lot of them. It was good for me to let off steam as soon as the Sprint was over, it was good for me to talk to the team, with my family, with Valentino, with Domizia (his girlfriend) and with everyone. Above all, Domizia always pisses me off when he sees that maybe I can’t give my best and I needed everything.”
“Everyone’s words help a lot for those who need mental closeness like I can. Then it was also useful to relax and talk about other things: yesterday Domizia was out and about doing her errands and talking about that made me a little ‘ took me away from my thoughts. But before I went to bed, the last thing I thought was that I really needed a result like this.”
If this was the mental aspect, he obviously also worked on the technical one to avoid finding himself stuck in traffic like in yesterday’s Sprint and to be able to be more incisive in overtaking maneuvers.
“This morning in the Warm-Up I tried to understand what to do differently, because I couldn’t do another race and stay behind. I have to say that the medium tire helped me a little on this one, because it pushed less than the soft and It allowed you to force a little more on the front tyre. I think it was a great help today, but today everything was really needed.”
“Yesterday’s race was also useful to understand how the others made the difference. Even the overtaking on Vinales was fantastic, because I started from afar and it gave me pleasure. Unfortunately yesterday I was in much more difficulty with the front tire pressure, but also in terms of driving in general.”
Finally, he was asked why in the last two corners he had allowed Vinales and Fabio Quartararo to get so close: “I slowed down because there was absolutely nothing left on the front tire, so it was better to keep a bit of margin. On the right the tire was really finished”, he concluded.
#MotoGP #Bagnaia #needed #victory #deserve