English
Italiano
On Thursday Bagnaia had confessed that he did not like Sprints and indeed he has some reason. Even in Le Mans the short race did not smile on him and he did not even have the satisfaction of seeing the checkered flag. Already at the start it was clear that something was wrong and he had gone from 2nd to 15th place, by 3rd he was last after a long run, and at that point there was nothing left for him to do but go and park his Ducati in the garage.
"I don't know what happened - Pecco spreads his arms wide - Already on the alignment lap I felt something strange, then on the warm-up lap I went long at turn 7, at the start I had a big wheelie, finally it was difficult to do anything. I lost the front at turn 6 almost under acceleration, something was wrong, not working as I expected. These are things that can happen, we have to solve everything for tomorrow."
Couldn't you finish the race?
"I retired because it would have been dangerous to continue. I am not one to retire, in fact it would have been better to continue to gather information for tomorrow, but it was the case to stop."
Are you more disappointed or angry right now?
"I am angry as hell. This is the second Sprint I can't finish: in Jerez because of a contact and here because of a problem. The fact that it was caused by my mistake makes me angry."
Are you referring to starting with the second bike?
"After the crash in qualifying I had to use it, my team is already checking everything. It is not easy to understand what happened in these cases, but I have a good team. We have an idea, but I can't say until I have confirmation."
Is such a big difference between the two bikes possible?
"It is true that sometimes they are not exactly identical, but I usually use both without any problems, I adapt. Today it was more complicated than expected, it wasn't working as it should or I couldn't get it to work. It would also have been possible to use the one I crashed with, but as a precaution after a crash, you usually use the other one because you can't imagine such a thing."
Could the electronics be the main culprit?
"We have to check. It wasn't just a grip problem, but something bigger, even at the level of electronics it wasn't the best ... it was a circle. It's always a dog biting its own tail."
On Sunday in Jerez Martin fell, today you: it's an unpredictable championship...
"A lot, and still very long. It's clear that I need to find more consistency, it's two weekends in a row that I have to deal with bad luck. Today also came because of a mistake I made, because if I hadn't crashed in qualifying I wouldn't have had to change bikes, although I didn't expect such a change."
Does this setback affect tomorrow's race?
"The expectations are to fight for the first two positions because my pace is good enough to do so. We take the positives, my team is already working and the potential high. Today the race would be between me and Martin."
What if it rains?
"In that case, it would become between six or seven. We will have to see."
Automatic Translation by DeepL
