Banish market controversies and dispel the Sprint taboo: Bagnaia, head and heart only at the World Championship
(Paolo Lorenzi) A weekend like this, maybe Bagnaia he hadn’t done it yet (quite a task for statisticians), because from Friday to Sunday evening the number one didn’t give up even one practice round to his opponents. Always in the lead: in free practice, in timed practice, in qualifying, in the Saturday preview and finally in the Sunday Grand Prix. Martin’s words, tenaciously in second place, would be enough to reiterate this. «Pecco is on another level», the disarmed comment, repeated every day. “No excuses, even today he was the strongest. And we were lapping a second faster than last year” admitted the Pramac rider. Bagnaia dominated.
The market controversies have not affected him. Always focused on the we arehe dismissed questions about the future of the team in two words: «They didn’t ask me, I wouldn’t have wanted it». Heart and head on the world championship where the ranking begins to smile: 8 points recovered from Martin (he is at -10), Pecco is more in the running than ever for the title. Four consecutive victories (adding together fast races and grand prix), the two-time MotoGP champion has put the arrow of overtaking. Not even the sprint worries him anymore: «After five races we’ve started strong since Friday» he explained on Saturday. «There were avoidable mistakes like in Barcelona – he said after the GP – there is always something to learn, you don’t become champions from nothing. If you think you’ve arrived, you’re screwed” the lucid summary of has the objective clear.
The Desmosedici is his, if anyone had any doubts. Marquez, when he arrives in 2025, will have to catch up. Meanwhile, the Spaniard has yet to win with Ducati; Assen said badly to him, he crashed in qualifying and in practice, he worked hard on Sunday to shake off first Di Giannantonio and then Vinales, but gave in without replying to Bastianini, who started eleventh and finished on the podium: «Strange race at the start — he explained Enea – but when the others dropped, I stayed on my pace.” Another comeback in his style, worth putting on the bulletin board. He couldn’t catch up with Martin (“like Pecco, today he was from another planet”) but for what matters he won the challenge with his future boxing partner, in Ktm. Vinales he resisted him little; the Aprilia rider also had to raise his hands on the last lap when a mistake made him open the door for Marquez. He finished fifth, Maverick, and lost a high position due to a course cut on the last lap. In favour of Fabio Di Giannantonio, protagonist who is anything but obvious, and for many laps ahead of Marquez. Fifth place raises the stakes its prices in the pilots market. And to think that a year ago, in these times, the Roman could have remained on foot.
