The reigning world champion made a lightning start from the second row of the grid and found himself right behind Jorge Martin and Brad Binder, but the Italian wasted no time as he made quick moves on both of them to lead the race by turn 4 of the opening lap.

Since then, no one was able to show ‘Pecco’ the wheel, as he managed the race from the front and eventually stretched his advantage to over 1.3 seconds at the finish line.

This victory mimics Bagnaia’s approach from the end of last year, where he focused solely on Sunday’s main race where most points are awarded.

“We work in silence!” said Francesco Bagnaia after a flawless Qatar Grand Prix win.

“We knew our potential, we tried to do the maximum yesterday, to change something for today’s race.”

“Yesterday, when I was behind, I just had two laps when I did 1m 52.0s, 52.1s, and after these two laps I started to have problems with the rear tire.”

“So the key was to be more calm on the rear, just trying to be more smooth on everything, and it was something that we understood yesterday thanks to the sprint.”

Bagnaia was aggressive from the start and felt that getting into the lead was extremely important early on.

“It was very important after yesterday to change the strategy in the first lap,” said the Italian. “I just tried to be more aggressive, and I knew if I was leading already [first] in the first laps, my potential was good enough to manage the gap.”

“For sure, the Sprint [race] of yesterday was a good lesson to change the approach [for the race] to find performance with the new bike.”

“From yesterday evening until this morning, we worked a lot to improve the setting for the race and it worked. So, overall, a perfect start of the season.”

Speaking on how he was able to deal with the chatter issue, the #1 replied:

“I just had a bit [of chatter] in the last two laps in just one corner, so I’ve worked it well. Maybe in Portimao we will not have this kind of problem because Portimao is a track where the grip is completely different. So, let’s see.”

“But in case of [similar chatter issues], I think we know perfectly where to go in case of the vibration.”

Pecco also maintained a staggering consistency of having every lap within 0.3 seconds.

“The potential was to go faster,” explained Bagnaia. “The bike was able to do 1m 52.2s, 52.1s, but it wasn’t useful because a lap like that could compromise everything. So I just tried to be as consistent as possible.”

“Every time I was shown [by the pit board] that Brad was gaining 0.2 or 0.3s but I was just doing another lap dropping 0.2 or 0.3s [from my best pace] to open a bit more the gap [later on].”

“So I was trying to manage perfectly the rear tire, the entrance of the corners, because in this way it was easier to control the gap, and it was perfect.”

With this win, the Italian assumes the championship lead ahead of Brad Binder and Jorge Martin, showing once again that it is his focus on the main race that keeps him at the top of the leaderboard.