Bagnaia: "I asked the team to only give me Quartararo's position if he was champion"

October 23, 2022

Sepang.- The Italian had his first match point to be world champion in Malaysia but at no time in the race was he in a position to be mathematically thanks to the great performance of Fabio Quartararo, who returned to the podium to avoid the outcome of the championship .

Now, Pecco Bagnaia leads with 23 points over the Frenchman and adding only two in Valencia, in two weeks, he will be the new MotoGP champion.

The first complicated bet for the Ducati rider was on the grid, where he started 9th and with the need to get rid of his rivals. Pecco made a lightning start on the inside and came into the first corner second with mission accomplished.

“I had thought about it before the race, I knew that it was the most important thing to gain positions, I had never made such a good start, not even in practice. I have advanced many positions, and when I reached the first corner I braked harder and I have placed second.

With the first mission accomplished and running second, the next goal was to win.

“I tried to follow Jorge Martin in the first few laps, but his pace was much stronger, I wanted to save tires for the end of the race and at that rate I was going to run out of tires, so I thought it’s okay, stay here and then we’ll see what happens. Jorge had the bad luck that he fell and that’s where we placed first”.

Leading the race and with Quartararo third, the second, Enea Bastianini, Ducati rider and Pecco’s teammate next year, did not seem to bother him. But he did.

“The fight with Enea was very strong, he overtook me, but I pushed hard to pass him again”, which happened already in the final part of the race. So it did seem that Bastianini was not going to risk the victory of his leader.

“I thought he would try to pass me again, I got away slightly, but in the last two laps I was listening to the engine of his bike, on the last lap I tried to brake as hard as possible to defend myself and win,” he said.

At some point it seemed that Bastianini could have won if he had tried harder, although Pecco’s triumph cannot be detracted from in the slightest.

“I had nothing else, I have given everything on the track,” he said.

Halfway through the race, Marco Bezzecchi came within two tenths of Quartararo, if he had passed him he would have given the title to Pecco.

“With the team, before the race, we talked about only putting Fabio’s position on me if, with it, I was champion, but in the end they didn’t put anything on me, so I knew at all times that I wasn’t a champion, but I wanted to win. to get the maximum points. I have pushed to the maximum, more than in Australia, because I needed this victory to get to Valencia more calmly”, settled.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team