After two monumental errors in Barcelona and Sachsenring, where Pecco Bagnaia started on pole and seemed a clear favorite for victory, despite crashing, the Italian driver was finally able to complete the race in Assen from the top of the grid, dominating from the first to the last lap, and taking a 25-point bite out of championship leader Fabio Quartararo, who failed to finish after suffering two crashes during the Dutch Grand Prix.
With the precedents of the last two races, and those of Qatar and Le Mans, where he also crashed, for Pecco the 26 laps of Assen took forever, waiting for the end to come without incident.
Pecco admits that he was “terrified” of losing the victory for another fall.
“It was scary, very scary,” Bagnaia said of the raindrops that fell in the final part of the race.
“Although we always say that we have to finish the race and that any result is fine, today we had to win or at least try to recover some points.”
He was also able to see out of the corner of his eye the clash between Fabio Quartararo and Aleix Espargaró.
“I only got to look at the big screen once and there was Aleix in the gravel and a blue bike on the ground,” he said.
“So I figured it was Fabio and Aleix, so we were a bit lucky.”
“However, I said to myself ‘ok, I can be more relaxed, I can do my race more calmly’. But seeing the difference with Marco Bezzecchi, I was always very close.”
At no time did Bagnaia break the race and the young rookie always had a shot at him.
“So I had to push again, I had to open up that gap again to be smarter and calmer in the final part of the race.
A few laps from the end, some threatening raindrops appeared.
“Then the rain came. When I saw that it was raining I slowed down a bit, but Bezzecchi pressed again. So it was very difficult. I was terrified of falling again, so the main thing was to finish. It wasn’t easy, but I tried to be smart , I tried not to exceed the limit.”
“The problem was that I saw the rain and I thought it was worse than it really was. The problem is that when it rains, and when it is a light rain, and you have the tear off , it fogs up a little, you start not things clearly, so I took the plastic off and lost like five or six tenths. I lost a lot of time, and Bezzecchi was catching up with me like it wasn’t raining. I was pushing without pushing because when it rains you can’t corner like normal. But I’ve found the way of driving and it went well”.
“I’m lucky, because I have people by my side who always know how to help me: my girlfriend, my family and my team, everyone. And seeing that I’m fast, because in the end you always have to believe in yourself. I know that when I get to the circuit , if I work in the right way, I have the possibility to fight for the victory or for the podium”, settled the Italian.
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