October 18, 2022
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Pecco Bagnaia just missed the victory in Australia but was still happy with P3. He did not want to take unnecessary risks and take points.
After a slow start to the Australian Grand Prix, Francesco Bagnaia quickly worked his way up to the top positions. Shortly after the halfway point of the race he took the lead and was on course for victory at the start of the final lap. However, the Italians ultimately only crossed the finish line in third place. He thus lost nine potentially important points in the championship battle in the final meters but was satisfied with the result after the end of the race. Are you satisfied with this result? Bet on what result the athlete will have next time using the online betting app.
“I wanted to win today, that was my goal,” Bagnaia revealed during the official MotoGP press conference on Sunday. “I wanted to score as many points as possible to open as big a gap as possible in the championship. But when I saw that Fabio [Quartararo, note] was out, my race changed.”
The Yamaha rider – world championship leader before the Australian GP and Bagnaas biggest rival – had fallen far back early in the race after a mistake at Turn 4 and crashed a little later while trying to catch up. This opened up the chance for Bagnaia to score big points in the third-last race of the season.
Bagnaia: Have learned my lesson!
“Victory would have been perfect, of course, but dropping out would also have been fatal. I absolutely had to finish this race,” he knows. The Ducati star, therefore, tried to open a gap in the closing stages and pull away to get less pressure from behind. But that didn’t work out: ” In the last six laps my front tire was completely destroyed. We had not expected that actually our bike handles front very well. Today I had to take care of the rear tire a lot and I think I used the front too much in the process.”
On the last lap, Bagnaia was therefore still overtaken by Alex Rins and Marc Marquez in turn two. “If there had been another opportunity, I would have attacked. But I also didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. I needed the points because I have already made too many mistakes this year. I learned my lesson,” he explains.
At Le Mans and Sachsenring, for example, the 25-year-old Italian crashed while in second place, and a few weeks ago he crashed out of the race at the Twin Ring at Motegi in a duel with Quartararo on the last lap. This time, Bagnaia, therefore, decided to settle for 16 points instead of 25.