RiderTua.com – Pecco Bagnaia led the MotoGP sprint at Portimao until shortly before the race ended. The factory Ducati rider was able to control the race with a difference of less than 1 second from his chasers, namely Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) and his brand colleagues Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez.
When braking towards Turn 1, the two-time consecutive MotoGP world champion experienced a detrimental incident: the rear of his bike’s ‘tail’ lifted after turning, but Bagnaia was able to prevent a crash. “I messed it up myself. I think I have handled more critical situations with greater pressure,” said Bagnaia.
Pecco Bagnaia : I Messed It Up Myself!
Francesco Bagnaia revealed that finally he felt good, passed well and was able to control the gap. But he didn’t consider the fuel consumption. Turn 1 is a bit odd, as the downhill section causes the rear to rise higher. The 27 year old rider admitted that he felt it for the first time after 4 or 5 laps and then he was able to avoid a crash.
“The rear of the new bike (GP24) is always a little more unstable. We will take another step tomorrow after we readjust it. This kind of thing has to be thought about on a track like this, the first braking point is relatively hard and is towards the bottom. There is one more thing to think about I have to remember,” added the student of Valentino Rossi, who ultimately finished 4th in the sprint at Portimao.
Regarding his mistake on lap 9, Pecco specifically explained, “I was fully focused on managing the gap. I just did a slow lap with 1:39.0 minutes because previously I did 1:38.7 minutes. Then I saw that they were getting closer and wanted to try more hard again like in Doha. But we always have to do the same thing to be consistent. It’s not enough to avoid mistakes. I’ll consider this tomorrow. But with the medium rear tire, everything will change in Sunday’s race.”
Then Carola Bagnaia’s younger brother admitted that after that he was just trying to finish the race and get points. Of course he wants to win. It’s been a long time since the rider from Turin, Italy, felt this good while racing. Of course such mistakes don’t help. But he’ll take the positives. Pecco feels comfortable with soft tires which usually don’t give him that good feeling.
