Francesco Bagnaia spent much of the Portuguese MotoGP race in fourth place. In the final laps, he was passed by rookie Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GasGas Tech3/KTM), before getting involved in an incident with Marc Márquez when the Gresini rider attempted an overtake.
The Ducati rider told reporters that he was expecting to have a different feeling in the race, admitting that the riders ahead were faster: ‘I was confident before the start, because on Saturday and in the warm-up my feeling was good. I was feeling better with the grip and everything was better, so I was thinking about a race of attacking and trying to have a good control of the tyres. But as soon as I started I was more on trouble; I was expecting to be faster and the guys at the front were too fast for me. So I just tried to avoid everything, I was trying to manage the tyres, but it was difficult’.
sked to explain more specifically the difficulties he faced, Bagnaia said: ‘I was struggling behind the guys in the front to close the line with the same amount of grip. They were very fast in turn 4 and 5. I was gaining in another part, but in turn 4 they were gaining like 0.2s in every acceleration. And in turn 5 I was losing again like 0.2s every lap. It was difficult to understand; I was trying to make different lines, I was trying to have the same corner speed as them, but I was always going wider and we have to understand that’.