Journalist apologises to Francesco Bagnaia after “bull****” rumour

Francesco Bagnaia was brilliant in the Spanish MotoGP at Jerez, beating Marc Marquez in a 1v1 fight for victory for the first time since their Aragon tussle in 2021.

Bagnaia had a response for Marquez on both occasions when the former Honda rider came through at turn nine, even though one of them resulted in contact and a near fall for both men. 

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Bagnaia, who was taken out of the sprint race in Jerez, bounced back in the best possible way and with Jorge Martin crashing out of the grand prix, Bagnaia was able to recoup a lot of the lost points from Portimao.

Interestingly for Bagnaia, the Ducati rider beat the man who could line-up alongside him next season in Marquez.

About who he would prefer as team-mate between Marquez and Martin, the Italian said: “I have already answered this question. In these last days I saw a video on twitter of a Spanish journalist saying I don’t want Marc in the factory team but it is bull****.

“I don’t care. I want to beat them all and always try to be the best. I don’t have a preference. I am working well with Enea and I know the type of work we are doing.

“In any case, if the team changes my team-mate then the work will start again, but my ambition is to be stronger.”

After answering that question, the journalist in question apologised to Bagnaia during the pre-event press conference.

After losing more points to Martin in the sprint at Jerez, it would have been easy for Bagnaia to feel as though luck was against him.

But the reigning world champion showed how strong his mindset was, which he believes is one of his biggest strengths.

Bagnaia added: “I think it is one of my strongest points. I don’t care if the day before I lose points, lose time or lose a race and crash.

“I know that if everything is ok I can fight for a win and fight back. This is something that was always like this and in the last few years; or last year it was like this every weekend.

“I was struggling on Friday’s and then able to fight for the top positions in the race.”