Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia conceded that the “maximum was third place” after completing the podium during the MotoGP British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday.
The double reigning champion’s streak of four Sunday wins in a row ended at the Northamptonshire circuit last weekend as he was beaten by title rival Jorge Martin and team-mate Enea Bastianini.
The Italian’s weekend wasn’t all plain sailing as he crashed out of Saturday’s Sprint race while sitting in podium contention and as a result he needed a bounce-back performance in the Grand Prix.
Bagnaia led in the first half of Sunday’s main event following a strong launch off the line but was passed by Pramac’s Martin and later his team-mate Bastianini, who went on to win and complete a first-ever weekend double.
Martin’s second-place finishes on Saturday and Sunday means Bagnaia now trails his Pramac rival by three points at the top of the Riders’ standings.
The Italian expressed his disappointment with the weekend’s events but said he would do his homework on what went wrong.
“First thing that I want to do this afternoon is to check everything on the data because I want to know what I did wrong,” he said in the post-race press conference.
“I was thinking I was managing everything well in terms of pace and tyre, but when Jorge overtook me I see that he was in a better shape than me and I lost the front [and] Enea overtook me.
“I just decided to slow down a bit and just finish the race. Honestly today that was better than try to fight for a better position. I tried to the maximum and the maximum was a third place.
Tyre wear played a pivotal part in Sunday’s race, with all but two riders opting for the medium front tyre.
Bagnaia opted for the medium front, which inevitably caused him to ride more conservatively with the rear.
“Every time I’m not happy with the front tyre, I finish the rear because I can’t force the bike to turn with the front,” he explained.
“It’s not the first time that it is happening. I’m not fully happy with the front tyre, today we chose the medium.
“I finished the rear more because I can’t force the front tyre to let the bike turn and I struggled a bit with the rear tyre consumption.
“I was having a lot of movement, I was locking. And when I was wide it was because as I entered it and when I touched the gas I lost it. So the tyre was having less support than what I was expecting and it was difficult for me to turn the bike.”
