In the crucial first Grand Prix of the season, the No. 1 made no mistake. The world has rarely seen a stronger race from Francesco Bagnaia.
After yesterday's 11-furlong sprint race, “Campione del Manto” Beko Bagnaia was only partially satisfied. With the restless rear end of his Ducati GP24, he narrowly missed the podium.
How did the significant increase occur?
Beko Bagnaia: “It was very important to change the strategy today, especially for the early stages of the race. We thought it would help us to be more aggressive from the start. Because from the top I had to be able to keep a lot of speed. That was confirmed.”
The new World Cup president stressed: “Yesterday was an important lesson for us in this regard. Sprint taught us what kind of treatment a new bike needs. We are now taking this knowledge to Portimão. However, the conditions are completely different in terms of grip. We will have to wait and see, but if there are problems, we now know how to deal with them.”
The key to success today is consistency. Bagnaya covered the entire distance in 0.3 seconds and set the record.
World Champion: “The idea is to drive faster than yesterday. And it worked so well that I was able to consistently complete rounds.
A 19th MotoGP win should give the Ducati Lenovo star plenty of confidence. Nevertheless, Bagnaya did not give up: “We have to remember that the season is still very long and we have no experience with the new machine, especially with regard to tire wear and there are still many tracks to come. We'll have to wait and see, but I'm very optimistic.”
World Cup standings after Qatar GP (10.3.)
driver
1. Francesco Bagnaia 31 points
2. Brad Binder 29
3. George Martin 28
4. Marc Marquez 18
5. Ene Bastianini 15
6. Aleix Espargaró 15
7. Alex Marquez 13
8. Fabio Di Giannantonio 9
9. Pedro Acosta 9
10. Maverick Viñales 7
11. Fabio Quartararo 5
12. Johan Sarko 4
13. Joan Mir 3
14. Marco Bessecchi 2
15. Miguel Oliveira 1
