The Ducati rider came out like a shot at Misano and quickly opened up a gap of almost three seconds. However, from the middle of the race he was losing ground to Fabio Quartararo, who was completely on top of him on the last lap, and won by asking for the time.
Bagnaia opted to mount the soft rear tire in front of the Frenchman’s medium, which allowed him to reach the end better. However, the #63 was able to push in the last two laps and Quartararo had no chance to attack him.
“I shouted a lot because the victory in Aragón was the whole race at 0.0. Here Fabio cut me two seconds. I knew it was possible to do well, but I had less potential than him with the tires. I tried to make a gap at the start because I had the soft. Then I saw that Fabio was going to cut everything off me and the last two laps were incredible. Now I know how to make the time when the tires are wrong,” Bagnaia explained on DAZN .
Like last year, the Turinese had another incident with the tear-off of the helmet screen. This time it got caught on his shoulder as he took it off.
“I couldn’t see with the mosquitoes and I tried to remove it, but I didn’t know when to do it. I removed it, it was hooked and it stuck here [he pointed to his shoulder]. I finally breathed for the last two laps,” he said.
It took Bagnaia almost three years to release his record of victories in MotoGP, but now he has taken a run.
“This was my home circuit and I wanted this result. Winning here is special because of all the people who are there. When you win you know you can do it. The same thing happened to me in Moto2,” he recalled.
This new victory leaves him 48 points behind Quartararo in the standings, when 100 remain at stake. The next race will be in Austin, a circuit that on paper should suit the Ducati better than the Yamaha .
“We’re going to Austin with more motivation and 48 points. Fabio hasn’t lost many points, but we’re going to try everything. It was important to do it and we’re going to continue like this,” he stressed.
(Click on the link or on the image to see all the photos of the MotoGP San Marino GP 2021)
