Francesco Bagnaia exited the main race of the Portuguese GP without scoring any points. In the final laps, while battling with Marc Márquez (Gresini/Ducati) for the top five, he collided with his rival and crashed, ultimately having to retire.
The Ducati’s two-time champion spoke about the incident: ‘When Marc arrived he just tried to overtake, he went wide, I tried to close the line, he closed his line, and we colided. It’s something that makes me angry, but it’s normal. It’s a racing incident and we have to move to the next one’.
Regarding what made he angry in this accident, Bagnaia clarified: ‘It makes me angry because I finished with zero points. And last year in the second race I did the same, finishing with zero points for my mistake. This year, for a racing incident. We know perfectly that with 38 races still to go the championship is very long, but I was expecting and I wanted to be more consistent in the results and not starting to have zero points already in the second race like last year’.
Finally, the Italian denied that the maneuver with Márquez was risky as far as he was concerned: ‘When he overtook me, he went wide. When a rider in front of you that you are battling goes wide, what do you want to do? Overtake him again, to take more points. From my side wasn’t risky’.