After the victory in Jerez, Pecco Bagnaia led the French Grand Prix for much of the race. However, with 7 laps to go, the Italian went wide in an attempt to repel Ducati attacks from race winner Enea Bastianini.
The Italian driver analyzed the sequence of errors on the lap that unfortunately led to the second zero of the season:
“If I want to win a World Cup, I can’t make mistakes like that. Now I’ll have several days at home to reflect on how things went here and coldly be even more critical of myself. Surely having 20 more points would have been a good help, but now the race is gone.”
“The season has started uphill and now we are going to try to reverse course,” Bagnaia said when asked to analyze his situation in the ranking. “Last year I crashed at Mugello, but for other reasons. At Misano because we had chosen the wrong tire and the conditions were a bit against us. Today I made a mistake of maturity. Crashing like that was stupid.”
“There are times when you feel so good on the bike that you don’t realize you’re on the limit and you crash. The problem is that I wasted a lot of points.”
From the outside, the feeling was that the arrival of the Gresini Racing Ducati could have unsettled the Italian , although Pecco Bagnaiaa denied this possibility:
“We are all professionals. I knew that Enea [Bastanianini] was fast, so when he was coming behind me I also increased the pace to try to go faster. It was a pace that only the two of us, him and me, could maintain. lost concentration, because Enea is very strong, but so are the other drivers on the track”, ensuring that the mistake at turn 8 was not due to being intimidated by Enea Bastianini.
The man from Rimini, who next year seems to have more and more chances of becoming his boxing partner, had hinted at this possibility.
“Enea can think what she wants, but the truth is that it was very fast and I made a mistake in judgement. I exaggerated the braking, because I thought I was closer, but in any case, it is better that he beat someone else”.
The Piedmontese also denied the hypothesis that he had tried to maintain an exorbitant pace beyond his possibilities.
“No, it was my pace throughout the weekend. In Jerez, Fabio [Quartararo] and I were unbeatable. I kept the pace throughout the race without making any mistakes. It was a pace I could afford.”
Now on the horizon is Mugello, Ducati’s home race, a priori favorable for the Italian factory.
“It’s my home track and I certainly like it a lot. Last year I was going very strong and it could be a good weekend for us, but I also hope that from now on we can always be competitive and faster. Without doing these bullshit here, it would be better,” concluded Bagnaia.
