Bagnaia, a good comeback
Francesco Bagnaia‘s Saturday started uphill, with an early elimination in Q1 that greatly complicated his weekend plans. However, the pace on his GP26 seemed competitive, and the two-time world champion demonstrated it with a proud and aggressive Sprint, in which he moved from 13th to 6th place.
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“Pecco” managed to preserve the front tire better than others, to be competitive in the second half of the short Barcelona race and to nearly reach the top 5. His hope is to get there tomorrow: with a distance of 25 laps, and on a Ducati that feels more in his hands after the Jerez tests, #63 will have to wisely balance the excellent pace of the GP26 and the need to overtake as many riders as possible in the first laps, despite the difficulties shown today in the early stages of the race.
Bagnaia’s words
“In my opinion, last year I had the wrong approach. I thought I was giving everything, but actually I am giving 100% this year. In fact, even a bit more. I am trying in everything I do“, this was his comment to Sky Sport MotoGP. “I think we started with difficulties, because the bike needs to be understood: it seems we don’t have a good basic setup that works extremely well everywhere. Di Giannantonio managed to find it, because he is always ahead, while we are struggling a bit more. Even today we managed to take another step forward, and that is important. It wasn’t easy, because tire wear here is demanding, but we managed to finish the Sprint with a good pace. We are trying in every way and will continue like this, in my opinion our potential is higher than this, together we can win“.
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“We went progressively, with used tires I can be quite fast. I lack initial grip: the leaders do 39.2 in the first laps, and I just can’t do that, because when I go on traction I miss that initial push phase. In three corners – 5, 9 and 14 – I lose all the gap, I am working hard to fix them like corners 3 and 4“, he added. “I manage to stress the front tire a bit less, making it turn well, which helps a lot on this track. If I can stay calm in the first laps, obviously overtaking, in the second part of the race we can be fast. I don’t know if it will be enough for a top 5, but the goal is to climb back up and continue with the work we are doing, because sooner or later the results will come“.
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