The soft tyre on the rear isn’t the selection that makes Pecco Bagnaia most comfortable and today the rider had problems not with the rear of his Desmosedici, but instead with the rear itself, so he was still happy with his performance but, he admits, everything will be different tomorrow where the choice will have to fall on the medium tyre. Maintaining consistency today was the goal.
If he had problems with the rear of the bike, like his rival Jorge Martín – third today in the Sprint – Bagnaia replied: ‘Honestly, in the last four laps I just wanted to finish the race without any more mistakes because I’d already made a huge one, and it was important to finish with as many points as possible. For me that’s something that can happen with the soft rear. If you compare the conditions, which aren’t the same as last year where we had incredible pace, I think that’s a possibility’.
Recalling his mistake, Bagnaia said: ‘It wasn’t a lack of concentration. I was totally focused on keeping the same pace, the same gap to those behind. I just tried to do a slower lap, in the second (1:)39.0s, before the last one which I did in (1:)38.7s but I saw that the guys were getting closer. I pushed again to make up the difference, as I did in Qatar, but as soon as I braked, and to be as constant as possible to do the same thing every time, that’s when it wasn’t enough to avoid this kind of mistake, and that will be something to bear in mind for tomorrow, but everything will change with the medium rear tyre’.
After today’s race, which Martín finished ahead of him, the gap between Bagnaia and the Pramac rider is two points in favour of the Italian: 37 vs 35.