Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia says that his team “did something incredible” to pull off its MotoGP Sprint race victory in Indonesia.
Bagnaia struggled throughout the three practice sessions in Mandalika but was able to take advantage of Jorge Martin’s crash from the lead to take Sprint glory ahead of Ducati teammate Enea Bastianini and Gresini’s Marc Marquez.
“I’m a believer, so I’m always believing of a win in both races,” Bagnaia told TNT Sports’ Gavin Emmett.
“It was not easy, my feeling throughout the weekend was not the best.
“We improved a lot this morning. During qualifying I understood something in the second sector and now I think we did something incredible, the pace was fantastic.
“Jorge crashed in the first lap but it was difficult also for me to open a gap because the pace was very similar to his one.”
Bagnaia “saw that [Martin] was losing the front” before Sprint crash
Bagnaia won the sprint race partly due to an error from main championship rival Martin, who saw the Pramac rider crash out of the lead.
Martin clearly had the pace advantage throughout the weekend over Bagnaia, but was overly ambitious going into Turn 16 on the first lap and lost the front, something which Bagnaia noticed when attempting to follow his rival.
“When I saw him entering the corner I said f*** he’s entering it super strong, I have to follow but as he entered I saw that he was losing the front,” said the Italian.
“It was very on the limit today, 63 degrees on the asphalt today, so I think it’s the hottest temperature we ever tried and it wasn’t easy on the front.
“Tomorrow will be another day, but in terms of pace [Martin and Bastianini] still have something more, so for tomorrow I have to do another step in the morning.
“For the Championship for sure it’s a great help but it won’t always be like this.”
Francesco Bagnaia: “I don’t like” topsy-turvy MotoGP title fight
Bagnaia admitted following the Sprint that he is not enjoying the nature of the title fight, with both himself and Martin seemingly taking turns making errors.
Despite winning today’s Sprint race, the Italian was also critical about the Michelin front tyre and suggested that it is impacting the championship.
“I don’t like it. I would like to be more careful and not risk too much like we are doing with the front,” said Bagnaia.
“We are in a moment that the rear is working super good and the front is always a bit on the limit, so it’s easy to make mistakes, to crash and we saw it many times this season.
“When you are leading with a normal pace you crash so you have to take care about it.”
