Francesco Bagnaia once again dominates with his third double this season in Austria after a commanding victory over chief championship rival Jorge Martin.

With this win, Bagnaia has now won five of the last six grand prix, resulting in him retaking the championship lead going into Aragon.

Going into the race, Bagnaia emphasized the importance of leading the race to conserve tyre pressures, but it was Jorge Martin who got holeshot and led the opening lap but a persistent Bagnaia was not looking to spend another lap behind the Spaniard and overtook him into turn number one.

The reigning world champion then put in a series of incredibly fast laps to break Jorge Martin, who eventually succumbed to high tyre pressures and was forced to drop his pace.

When asked about his perfect weekend:

“Yes, absolutely. It was fantastic,” exclaimed Bagnaia, who crossed the line 3.2 seconds ahead of the rest.

“I was quite confident about my pace, but this morning, I saw that Jorge with very used tyres. He did a very, very good pace in the warm-up, so I said, okay, in the last part of the race, he will be very strong, for sure. So, at the moment, I’m always very confident and I’m always saying that Jorge will be there fighting because, at the moment, we are making the difference between [us and] the rest and I was sure that it was a race between us.”

“Yesterday was a very great race. With a bit of luck, we forced a penalty [out of Martin], but then today, I think we did a very fantastic pace.”

“It was incredible, the speed we had! I was just trying to be a bit faster every lap compared to Jorge, just to have this kind of gap in the last part of the race and gain control a bit with the rear, because I was having to do a lot of waving in the straights with the rear tyre, and it was important to have this kind of gap just to manage it.”

When asked about the particular “waving” issue Bagnaia was facing…

“I was just trying to wait with the throttle until I was finding a good traction,” explained Bagnaia. “Because if not, the rear was spinning a lot.”

“On the straight exit on corner 3 and corner 10, it was difficult to manage it. And I think we worked a lot with the electronics on the weekend and we did a step back to remove a lot of traction control just to have more [control] on my hand and it was easier to manage.”

“Peace outside, War inside.”

Speaking about the intensity of his battle with Martin, Bagnaia emphasized the importance of respect that exists between him and Martin who have been engaged in a titanic championship battle for almost year and a half, previously competing for the 2023 crown and now being separated by only five points going into Aragon.

“When there is respect, there is peace outside and war inside of the track. But also always with respect. We know each other from a very long time ago and I never understood riders that change their relationships during the championship.”

“It’s true that when you are fighting for the same objective, you change a bit, but the respect has to always be there and it looks that we are still remaining in the same situation from last year or from when we were more young.”

The reigning World Champion eyes revenge on his championship rivals

Up next is Aragon, before we move onto double feature race in Misano. Both venues have been happy hunting grounds for Bagnaia in the past and he will be looking to continue his impressive form to close off his monstrous European run.

“Last year, we didn’t race in Aragon, but two years ago, we had a great fight between me and Enea. He won in the last lap, so I would like to have a revenge this season! They resurfaced the track, so I think the grip will be fantastic.”

“In Misano last year, Jorge was unbeatable, so let’s see. But also there, I would like to have a revenge! But for sure, the two tracks that I like are the two tracks that I won in the past and it will be important to take the maximum in both.”