Starting from pole, Bagnaia was overtaken by Quartararo early in the race, and a lap later the Italian tried to retake the lead at the first corner. However, his rival, Fabio Quartararo changed his course and regained first place.
The Italian’s race was cut short just two laps later when he lost the rear of his Desmosedici for no apparent reason. Bagnaia did not understand the fall, which has left him 91 points behind Quartararo.
“It’s a disappointment,” confessed the Ducati rider. “I can’t explain my accident. I don’t know. I must have crashed because I made a mistake, but in this situation it is very difficult to understand things by analyzing the data.”
“I was angry because I couldn’t explain it. I’m very angry because when you fall and you know why, it’s your fault,” Bagnaia explained.
“Normally I do self-criticism, but today I can’t because the cause of the crash is inexplicable. It’s harder to understand, harder to accept. The only positive thing is that we have a race next week. We were still ahead, we were the fastest And if you look at my pace, the potential was high.”
“I have done more than 70 laps every day and I have never had a slip like this,” he detailed. “I’ve never had a crash like that in my life, except at [Valentino Rossi’s] Ranch, but it’s easier there. It’s very difficult to understand the cause. The angle was the same, the speed was the same…”
“I was turning towards the exit [of the corner], so it is very difficult to understand the accident. It is the most difficult thing at the moment, because maybe our bike has a limit that makes you fall if you go too far.
This fall could make Pecco Bagnaia reconsider , who admits that he needs to take a step forward to become a true rival of Fabio Quartararo. “Fabio has shown once again that he is more complete than me,” he said.
What does the Italian have to do to reach the same level? “Finish the races,” he replied. “[Quartararo] is always up front and never makes a mistake. Maybe his bike will help him make fewer mistakes, I don’t know, it’s just an opinion.”
“If I look at his bike and the combination [he makes] with him, they are strong in the attack on time, strong in the pace, strong in the race, they never make mistakes. That’s what makes them more complete. This year I have four blank results. This weekend I was performing well, I was stronger than him, but he won and I crashed.”
And despite his championship lead, it was Quartararo who took the biggest risk for the race, opting for a medium tire of uncertain strength.
Bagnaia is not surprised by this approach: “He is the world champion, so he is one of the best drivers in history. For sure he wants to win, like Marquez tried to win every race, Valentino [Rossi], Casey [Stoner]. … That’s what the best drivers try to do.”
Despite Fabio Quartararo’s lead at the start, Pecco Bagnaia had a plan in place and hoped to take advantage of his less degraded hard tire to make the difference in the latter part of the race. The Turinese had just given up an immediate duel at the time of his mistake.
“Everything was perfect. At the beginning of the race, I was in control. I had two plans: go out in front and attack, or if Fabio was in front and couldn’t pass him in the first two laps, which is what happened, I intended to be calmer, smarter, let Fabio take 1 second or 1.5 seconds, and then close the gap in the second part of the race to pass him, because I had the hard one [behind] and he had the medium one.”
“I think if it had been there, the race pace would have been 1:21.5 and 1:21.9, so it would have been difficult for a medium tyre. It’s easy to talk now, but I think the potential was there. Everything was going according to plan. expected, everything was working fine. My braking was strong, I had good speed in the corners, everything was fine. That’s why it’s even harder to accept.”
