Francesco Bagnaia achieved victory in the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix, putting an end to the bad luck he has been experiencing in Barcelona – including yesterday in the Sprint race, which he abandoned while leading.
The Ducati rider spoke at a press conference about his approach to this race, in which he surpassed Jorge Martín (Pramac/Ducati): ‘I started well and tried to establish my rhythm, but I saw that Jorge and Pedro [Acosta] were attacking a lot. I tried to follow them for a lap, but I felt that it was a bit too much for my tires, so I waited a bit longer. And after about ten laps, I started gaining speed compared to Jorge. It wasn’t easy, because managing the rear was good, but also the [front] tire was wearing out, so it wasn’t easy‘.
In Bagnaia’s opinion, there was a particularly distinguishing aspect of Martín in the final laps: ‘In the final phase of the race, I think I was really able to be consistent and fast on corner entry. And that was the biggest difference between me and Jorge, he was having some difficulties on entry‘.
After what happened in the Sprint race, the 2022 and 2023 champion admitted that he wanted to redeem himself particularly in turn five where the crash occurred: ‘I am very happy, because I was very annoyed and disappointed about yesterday. It was important for me to do something in turn five today, because it was important to forgive what happened yesterday. And overtaking there was the best place, because I was very strong in turn four, I was gaining a lot of time on entry and with speed in the corner. So, I wanted to enter there and just prayed not to lose the front‘.
