Pecco Bagnaia was running as one of the main favorites before the start of the championship. However, the first few races were ultimately very difficult for the Ducati rider, who made a mistake in Qatar, fell behind in the rain at Mandalika and stayed out of contention for the podium in the next three tests.
Fortunately for the Borgo Panigale factory, the situation was reversed from Portimão, when Bagnaia started to improve in terms of speed. In Jerez, the Italian was consistently at the forefront of the third free practice of the weekend, with Fabio Quartararo the only one to follow his pace in qualifying and the race.
Finally, Pecco gave the 2022 Ducati Desmosedici its first success of the year, after Enea Bastianini ‘s good results with last season’s model.
“It’s one of my best wins because it comes after a difficult period,” Bagnaia said of his result in Jerez. “We have never stopped working since the beginning of the season and finally, after all this work, we are starting to show our potential. It was difficult to show it,” he said.
During the first weeks of the course, Pecco Bagnaia was not entirely happy, claiming that he had too many things to try and requesting time for himself and his riding. Ducati heard the message and the Desmosedici has changed little since then.
“I was more optimistic during the [winter] tests, but the reality was very different coming into the first race, I started to struggle a bit. I think we did a good thing by stopping to try to adapt this bike to me and go out.”
“As it is [the bike], it requires a different riding style than mine, and now I can be quicker in the corners. It’s different, but in the end I think I’m back to my highest level, like last year, and I want to continue like that.”
The Ducati has gained in agility in recent years, and Bagnaia enjoyed very good cornering speed in 2021, a characteristic that Ducati has struggled to regain this year.
“Over the last two weekends I’ve been working hard to get into the corners quicker and understand how to do it, and it’s not easy,” said the Italian.
“I worked a lot with Ducati to be strong on the brakes going into the corners, but now it’s a bit different. We’re talking about tenths, it’s not a big difference, but now I can get in quicker.”
“For sure this new bike has better things and less good things, and it was very important to understand how it handles because it’s a bit different, but I finally got it in Portimao,” added Pecco Bagnaia on the championship’s official website.
Will this progression and this first success of the year start a rise in the championship similar to last season? “I hope so,” replied Bagnaia . “I have [points] to make up, but [the season] is still long, so we have to wait, I hope so,” he concluded.
