Bitter slide
The weekend of the French GP, at Le Mans, saw Francesco Bagnaia return to excellent levels of competitiveness both in qualifying (pole position secured), both in the Sprint (third consecutive second place in the short race), and in the race. However, this last phase did not materialize into a good result: Bagnaia, author of an excellent first half of the race on the historic French track, actually fell during the 16th lap at the Dunlop chicane while he was in second position, closely pursued by the Spaniard Pedro Acosta.
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Initially, the fall of #63 was attributed to a very slight driving error on his part, which would have caused the front to suddenly close. However, Bagnaia in the post-race interview given to Sky had without any doubt blamed the slide on a technical problem on his bike, “the same as in Jerez”, according to him, and therefore concerning the brake area.
Acosta privileged spectator
Precisely Acosta, privileged spectator of Bagnaia’s slide, expressed his opinion on what happened to the three-time world champion to Spanish journalists in the traditional post-race media scrum. The KTM Shark seemed to at least partly support Bagnaia’s thesis by calling the Ducati rider’s fall “strange”. “It was a bit strange – said Acosta – he made a couple of mistakes in the previous lap and I took advantage to get closer and just as I was glued to his wheel, he fell. It was a bit odd”, Then Acosta made a consideration about the tires: “It was too cold for the hard front tire,” he suggested. Acosta had a soft, but it must be said that almost all the top riders had chosen the hard front.
“We are used to seeing other riders fall, but when it happens so close it is hard to pass the same spot on the next lap without thinking about it and without checking that everything is okay – admitted Acosta – but we don’t have time to look at the fallen rider; we keep looking at the track. Riders are selfish and when someone falls, you only think of one thing: one less“, concluded the Murcian.
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