Bagnaia overtakes seven riders on final lap, claims first podium since Jerez

Francesco Bagnaia made a brilliant recovery from ninth on the final lap to claim his first MotoGP podium since Jerez.

The Ducati rider led most of the race before heavy rain fell with five laps to go, which subsequently saw the Italian pit for wet tyres along with Marc Marquez, Jorge Martin, Fabio Quartararo and Joan Mir. 

However, the wildcard in the pack was Brad Binder who remained out on a wet track with slick tyres and ultimately took the victory. 

Bagnaia used his wet tyre advantage to pick off six riders in just two corners on his way to P2, as he reduced his championship deficit to Quartararo from 52 to 47 points.

"I’m happy about the podium. I waited a long period for another podium because the last one was in Jerez. We worked a lot in this period and in these two weekends I think we have worked better than all the season," said Bagnaia after the race. 

"I’m very happy about that. Today we achieved a good result. It was not easy from the start as it was raining a bit and to find the pace in this situation is always very difficult, but every lap I pushed a bit more and it was always better. 

"Then when the rain dropped a lot it was very difficult to stay in front because in this situation it’s very difficult."

With Marquez second and battling Bagnaia for the lead, the former Moto2 world champion elected to let the Spaniard through given his incredible flag-to-flag success, and instead see what choice the Honda man made.  

Bagnaia added: "So, I let Marc [Marquez] past because in this situation he’s always very strong and I wanted to see what he was doing and he stopped in the box to swap the bike so I followed him. 

"But I was seeing a lot of riders passing with the slicks and was asking myself whether I was doing the correct decision because there was just five laps remaining. 

"I pushed a lot from the start and it was not easy. I don’t know why but the first two laps with rain (tyres) was more slippery than with the slick on the braking. 

"But I see for all the riders this was the same because Marc crashed and Jorge [Martin] say the same to me." 

With Bagnaia having the pace for victory throughout, starting the final lap in P10 left him ‘angry’ - a feeling that soon became a positive one. 

Bagnaia added: "For me I was angry when I started the last lap because I was P10. I was seeing that far, far away there was a group, but I was not thinking that there was nine riders. 

"So when I arrived at turn four I overtook Taka [Nakagami] and the other riders from turn six to turn seven [laughs]. 

"It was nice, I overtook Lecuona in turn eight and then nobody was in front. I was not thinking to be on the podium because I counted just six riders so I was thinking I finished in P4, but then when I looked at the big television I saw that I was second and was a bit more happy."