Francesco Bagnaia 'needed mistake' from Jorge Martin to win Misano sprint

Francesco Bagnaia says he “needed this mistake” from Jorge Martin in the MotoGP Emilia Romagna Grand Prix sprint race as overtaking him “was very difficult”.

The reigning world champion set a new lap record to claim pole on Saturday at Misano, but once again found himself jumped by Pramac rider Martin off the line in the sprint.

The pair ran line astern for the first seven laps, before Martin made a mistake at Turn 13 on the eighth tour and allowed Bagnaia into a lead he would hold to the chequered flag.

The sprint win has seen Bagnaia close Martin’s championship lead down to just four points ahead of Sunday’s grand prix.

Speaking after the race, Bagnaia says his win likely wouldn’t have been possible without Martin’s error.

“Super happy for what happened, for the race, because I think me and Jorge did something incredible in terms of pace: six seconds faster than two weeks ago,” he began.

“It’s impressive. The lap times we were doing were [good enough] to start on the second row in qualifying, so this means a lot to me, to us.

“And tomorrow will be the same.

“So, we need to start better than today because I lost again two places and tomorrow I will try to do the best start as possible and try to set my pace because I think we have some good potential to manage the gap.

“We had a little bit of difference compared to two weeks ago, which was that my physical condition was better.

“So, I was able to use my body better to control the movement, to control the tyres.

“And it helped a lot because when it was remaining six laps I overtook him and from that moment I tried to push again to open the gap and control the gap.

“I needed this mistakes because it was very difficult to have an attempt. But I was planning to do it in one or two laps, but surely being 100% physical helped a lot.”

Bagnaia identified several areas on the track where he was thinking about lining up an overtake, but concedes he will have to “invent” something for the grand prix in case he finds himself stuck behind Martin again.  

“Corner 14, but also corner two, corner four, corner six,” he said of where he was thinking about attempting a pass on Martin.

“Every time we have to change direction is where I’m gaining a bit. It was risky for sure but for tomorrow we will be important to invent something in case we are behind.”

On the lap before Bagnaia took the lead, he suffered a big front end moment going through Turn 5.

He has blamed this on the recently repainted white lines being too slippery.  

“Luckily, it was easy to control,” he said of the lap seven scare.

“But the white lines after they repainted them are very slippery and I don’t think they did a good job in this case.”