One of the most frustrated riders in the Sprint race of the Catalunya MotoGP Grand Prix is Francesco Bagnaia. The Ducati man was leading relatively comfortably until he crashed on the last lap and had to retire.
The rider already has some ideas about what may have caused the crash: ‘I waited for the bike in the garage and stayed there in the garage for an hour to analyze everything. Because when you can’t properly understand why you fell, it’s better to analyze everything. It seems that entering slower with the same brakes can make you fall. Under normal conditions it shouldn’t happen, but here the level of grip is a disaster and this can happen. So we have to analyze, understand and try to be more careful in this kind of situation for tomorrow – because the race is longer, hotter, and it will be important to finish‘.
Frustrated with another missed opportunity in the Sprint race when everything was going well for him, Bagnaia emphasized the importance of finishing the main race: ‘It’s already three consecutive weeks where on Saturday we are very strong for the Sprint race, but we don’t finish due to problems or crashes. Today we lost another good opportunity. I was the fastest, I was leading, I was calm until the checkered flag, but it wasn’t enough. For tomorrow it will be important to extract the positive aspects from today, which are many. But finishing the race will be very important because it seems that on this track I have some problems finishing races, but it will be important to do it‘.
After the race, Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) – who ended up winning – commented that he saw the Italian making some mistakes. However, Bagnaia believes that was not the case: ‘I had a small issue with the bike, but honestly I don’t know what mistakes Aleix saw, because I was simply faster. It’s true that coming out of turn five on the previous lap I had a problem with the gearbox that we are resolving, but other than that I didn’t make any other mistakes’.
On the other hand, Bagnaia talked about his approach to Saturday’s race: ‘As soon as I saw how they were attacking, I just said to myself: “I don’t worry, let’s see what they will do.” My strategy was just to try to be as precise as possible with the rear tire. In the last five laps, I was much faster than the others. I think it is also very important to manage in the Sprint at this track’.
