Bagnaia bittersweet after his win: “Could’ve been a 37 points weekend…”
Francesco Bagnaia conquered his Barcelona nightmares to win Sunday’s Grand Prix ahead of championship contenders Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez.
Shehryar Bin Shahid 27th May 2024
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The reigning world champion had the best pace all weekend and could’ve easily scored full 37 points this weekend to close in on championship leader Jorge Martin.
But instead, he could only salvage 25 points as he crashed in the final lap of Saturday’s Barcelona Sprint Race, resulting in Jorge Martin once again stretching his advantage in the championship, albeit by only a single point.
In a weekend where he had a clear pace advantage over his championship rivals, Bagnaia feels that being unable to take full advantage of the weekend is what stings him the most.
When asked if this victory would slay his Catalan Grand Prix demons forever in the future:
“I hope, I really hope! Yesterday was… I’m still thinking about yesterday,” said Bagnaia after a bittersweet Catalan Grand Prix weekend where he could’ve scored a maximum of 37 points instead of just 25.
“The win of the day is making me happy, but it could be a 37 points weekend. But yesterday, the crash was a shame. So in any case, disappointed about yesterday, but very happy about today.”
Bagnaia allowed early leaders Jorge Martin and Pedro Acosta through, to preserve his tires as he felt that the leaders were pushing a lot compared to him.
With Acosta crashing out while pushing Jorge Martin to the limit, it left Jorge Martin’s tires in a vulnerable state as he could not lose the temperatures in his tires to fend off a late-charging Bagnaia.
“We confirmed the hard work we did all weekend and we were just faster. At the start, they were competitive, but I saw that they were pushing a bit too much on the tires, so I decided to be more calm.”
“And in the last laps, when I saw Jorge start to struggle a bit, I pushed again and it’s fantastic to win.”
Seeing Martin in a vulnerable state, Bagnaia felt that he needed to bust some myths regarding his crashes in Barcelona.
“Yesterday, I crashed there, so it was important to bust this myth and just win with the overtake there. So I decided to overtake them there for that reason.”
“In the last lap, corner 5, I did [the corner] like with the leg out because I was very scared to crash again in the last lap! Bagnaia joked. “But luckily, I finished it.”
Next up is Mugello in just a week’s time, which has traditionally been Bagnaia’s happy hunting ground in the past.
“I’m very happy that we’re racing Mugello. It’s my favorite race weekend with Misano, so I’m very, very happy. It’s one of my favorite tracks, so let’s see.”
