Francesco Bagnaia seemed close to his second consecutive victory this Sunday at Le Mans, but ended the French MotoGP GP in third place. After leading for much of the race, the Ducati man was unable to hold off winner Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati) and Marc Márquez (Gresini/Ducati) towards the end.
The champion of the last two years explained in a press conference that the last five laps were tough, after giving his all: ‘I was trying to do my best, but we can consider this weekend positively, considering that Friday went perfectly. Then I had a small problem yesterday in the Sprint that didn’t allow us to finish the race. And today these two [Martín and Márquez] were simply faster. I tried my best, but in the last five laps I struggled to find something extra – the opposite compared to Jerez.’
Although he enjoyed the improvements made at Le Mans, Bagnaia emphasized that the final position is not a reason for satisfaction: ‘In any case, we improved a bit at this track, where I crashed last year and three years ago, so it was important to finish the race and we did it quickly. So, I’m happy with that, but being third I can never be truly satisfied. But in any case, we move on to Barcelona and try to improve a bit.’
As for the reason for the difficulties in the last laps, the Italian believes that, above all, it was related to the superiority of his opponents even though he didn’t have the best sensations.
– I was very strong in Sector 1 and Sector 2 – very strong in sector 2, I believe, I was very strong in turn 7. But then I was losing in braking for turn 9. I also saw when I was behind Jorge that he opened the gap in just one braking. So, it was very strange and I didn’t have the feeling to brake harder, to put some more speed in this turn. But we will see why I was having such difficulties. Marc also overtook me there. I was thinking that I was braking hard, but I couldn’t stop the bike well. I needed to use more the front brake and he was able to overtake me. But I think it was just the fact that they were faster.
