Few were counting on Pecco Bagnaia for today’s race after seeing how the deluge devastated the Buriram circuit . However, the Italian managed to stay in the lead at the Thai Grand Prix, and managed to get on the podium in highly delicate conditions.
Pecco arrived at the race very motivated, after having made the best time in the morning warm up . However, they ran into rain, which had not made an appearance in training.
“We had everything perfect, I had done the best warm up of my life… and when I saw the rain I got nervous”, lamented Bagnaia. “Then Jack [Miller] came up to me and started talking about how I needed to believe in myself more.”
In addition to the disaster of the last Japanese Grand Prix, in which he qualified 12th (last in Q2, over water) and crashed in the race, Bagnaia still had fresh memories of the Indonesian Grand Prix, where he struggled to score points.
“I knew that my potential was better than in Mandalika or Japan,” said the Ducati rider. “Maybe not for the podium, but for the top five. I knew that Oliveira, Miller and Zarco were going to be in the front, because they are the fastest in these conditions, and I wanted to stay close to them. I think it was the anger of Japan the one who helped me shoot with them”.
“It was difficult because we hadn’t run in those conditions. It’s hard to predict tire pressures. Today it was more a question of not having had experience in the wet at this circuit.”
Although he was able to ride in the top five throughout the race, he was not in a position to challenge for victory at any time . In fact, he had to fight with Marc Márquez in the first half of the race. “I saw that he was leading Marc by a second, and he was getting closer to me. When he tried to overtake me, I realized that I was losing time under braking, and I tried to improve it,” he explained.
The #63 believes that this is the reason why Johann Zarco did not dare to overtake him in the last laps, when he hunted him down. “I think that’s the only reason why Johann [Zarco] didn’t try to overtake me. He braked very well and could close the door better, and it was too risky to try [overtaking]. Afterwards I thanked him for not taking those risks”.
The general classification is again in a handkerchief, with Bagnaia just two points behind Fabio Quartararo, and Aleix 20. “Now everything will intensify. I will have to be very smart in these last three races, because I think we have a lot of potential, worse I can’t make the mistakes of Japan or the first half of the season. We know it will be cold in Australia, and we will have to adapt, but I think we will be competitive.”
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