Francesco Bagnaia: “This was something we were searching for”
Francesco Bagnaia feels progress despite tenth place in MotoGP practice at COTA.
Francesco Bagnaia believes his tenth-place finish in Friday's MotoGP practice at COTA masked significant progress.
The Italian began the day with sixth in the soaking morning outing then clung on to the final top ten place for direct Qualifying 2 access in the drying afternoon session.
With the other five Ducatis filling the top five places, there wasn’t an obvious sign of progress from a rider who is yet to outpace factory team-mate Marc Marquez in a session so far this year.
But Bagnaia remained optimistic.
“I’m happy for the first time on a Friday with my feeling on the bike,” he said.
“In wet I was very happy - normally I need more time to be competitive and from the first laps I was feeling good.
“Then this afternoon, the whole session was good, I just made the wrong decision to go with the soft front in the last ten minutes.
“We know that I'm always struggling a lot to make that tyre work. The other Ducati riders are better on it, and I know it's one of my weak points.
“But apart from that, I'm happy.
"The feeling on braking, the feeling on the entrance of corners was better, and this was something that we were searching for.
“We are trying to solve our problems session by session, and I think we are getting closer to my best feeling.
“Right now, in this track, I feel much better than in Thailand, so I just have to keep going like this.”
Bagnaia added that he had kept “a lot” of margin in the tricky conditions and reiterated he has no desire to go back to last year’s GP24 package, despite being beaten by satellite riders Alex Marquez and Franco Morbidelli in Termas.
“My English is not that good, but what I wanted to explain is that I wanted to get back to my feeling of the GP24. Not properly go back to the GP24,” he said.
“Also because it's clear that the new bike has a better potential. Marc is showing that. So I don't need to be back, I just want to have the same feeling of last year's bike.
“But at this track, I feel much better. So I'm already happy.”
The double world champion will start Saturday’s Sprint race holding third in the standings, 15 points behind Alex Marquez and 31 from Marc.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
