However, despite getting a perfect launch, he saw himself defending a divebomb from Martin which forced him off the track. This offsetted Bagnaia’s early rhythm and allowed Bastianini through who then set a scorching pace to distance himself from Bagnaia.

While Bagnaia was second, his chief championship rival Jorge Martin was languishing down in fifth place after hisearlier mistake but the Spaniard was in fine form and quickly made it past Marquez and Acosta for third and fourth respectively before going after Bagnaia.

The championship leader then got past Bagnaia in an audacious move on turn 6 with a few laps remaining to gain two more points to boost his championship bid. 

“I was thinking this morning that I was in a good shape. [I was in] better shape than the rest, but this afternoon, as soon as I started, I didn’t feel the same on braking,” Explained Bagnaia when speaking to BTSport.

“I was losing a bit of time every braking zone, and it was not ideal, but nothing [we could do]. We managed to finish third.”

“We just lost two points. Surely, in this moment, it’s better to gain points!”

“Well, it’s true that it’s not ideal because we are in a situation where we need to gain points, but today Jorge just did a good job. I was struggling a bit more compared to the other session [morning], and we had to check on the data to see what happened because I didn’t feel as well as this morning with the brakes, with the front.”

“I was losing a bit of time in the first sector that and in the third one that were two sectors where I was feeling much better. So we will try to improve for tomorrow to understand what happened and try to solve the problem.”

When asked about Jorge Martin’s aggressive maneuver over Bagnaia in turn 6 to take second place which also saw the Spaniard run hot into the green. Although Bagnaia felt that the move was inevitable as he felt slow in the corner six but he also felt that Martin went off into the green more times to warrant a penalty.

“I was expecting it because I was slow in corner six. The only thing is that the corners are not easy to overtake and we clearly see that he goes on the green because to close down the line is not that easy if you don’t want the guys on the outside to cross your line. From that moment, I just pushed a lot to close the gap to him and we were on the limit.”

“Honestly, I counted four but maybe I was wrong. So, if that long lap didn’t arrive, it’s because he just touched it twice.”
“But in any case, I don’t have to keep believing in penalties. I have to improve my performance and try to be better.”
“What I have to do is be in front of him and put a bit of pressure on him with the results. I will never do a s**t maneuver [on him]. I will always be clean like I’ve always been and try to win in that way.”

“I know that in some circumstances it’s better to be more aggressive, but I prefer to I always ride like this, I prefer to be like this and five races are still a long way to go and Jorge, we know the performance he’s having but we have to keep thinking on [our performance].”

When asked whether the hard option rear tyres would be a good option, Bagnaia affirmed that it does look to be a viable option for the race and hopes to display a stronger performance to challenge Martin.

“I think tomorrow will be different because we will use, I think, another tyre, and normally with the hard rear, I feel a bit better, but we have to wait for tomorrow.”