It could - or maybe should - have been a success, since Bagnaia was so fast and wanted to celebrate his 100th MotoGP with Ducati's 100th victory in the premier class. He started from the pole and was ahead of the pack after the first corner. Then darkness. He started to lap at a pace that wasn't his, only to start hammering record times after 15 laps and finally fall with 7 to go. Not even Pecco can explain this roller coaster of performance and emotions.
"I don't know what was normal about today. Everything was strange starting from the morning," the world champion spread his arms wide, and started from the end, with his fall. "I was practically on a straight bike, I was leaning twenty-three degrees and, normally, when it's dry, you don't fall. I braked eighteen meters earlier than my fast lap in the race, and I fell, as if I had hit a pothole, when there wasn't one there. Everything was strange from the start."
Why?
"I had lost the rear at the last corner on the warm-up lap and, then at thirteen on the first lap, and the front at fourteen. I was pushing and doing 1'31"8. Then, from one moment to the next, my times dropped six or seven tenths without doing anything different. I don't know. I had more or less the feeling with the rear that I had in Barcelona last year when I fell at the second corner. Fortunately, there's more grip on this track. The rear tire wasn't working. I've never heard a rider complain about a rear tire that started working after fifteen laps. When it's cold, at most, it takes one or two laps to work. I've never heard such a thing."
Did you speak with Michelin?
"I think it's new to them as well. No one knows what happened. It's hard to understand because the pressure and temperature were in the norm, but the tire wasn't working."
Bastianini said he had the same problem this weekend, on the left side.
"It was on both sides for me. I can't say anything because we don't know what happened. Even Marquez had complained on Friday that he couldn't use the medium tire on the rear. It's strange because it didn't work for fifteen laps and then it was great. I was really fast. I kept the pace I thought I had. After the start, I was in front, and I thought I could get away, open a gap."
Without that fall, could you have won?
"Looking at what happened next, maybe, yes. I had already gained a second and a half and, in the last laps, they upped the pace. Maybe I could've, but it's one thing to catch them and another to pass them. Finishing the race would have already been a good thing."
Could the rear tire have affected the fall?
"To make up for my pace, I pushed hard when braking and wore out the front tire a bit. But, in that braking, I had some strange vibrations. You can also see from the images on TV. We have so many things to analyze."
Are the tire problems becoming too frequent again?
"It's unfortunate, but I know for a fact that Michelin doesn't know what happened. It's not something they did intentionally. Of course, it's a problem, because they always want to give everyone the same chance but, sometimes, for some reason, they don't. I had had a perfect weekend, then I came into the race with the pace to win and had to slow down because of the tires. It's a problem that doesn't make the championship balanced right now because, in the last three GPs, I had to deal with with problems out of our control, three times. In the two Misano GPs, I lost only five points in total, but it's also true that I had a chance to leave here leading the championship."
How do you feel?
"I'm pissed as hell. Michelin can't do anything about it, so I can't be mad at them, but letting your rivals get away pisses you off, because you can't push. I had been the fastest all weekend, and it's another missed opportunity."
You have 24 points to make up in six GPs.
"Six? I thought it was five ... then the glass is half full," he said laughing. I could've left here as the leader. Instead, I'm way behind, but we do what we can do with the idea of winning every race."
What's your take on Bastianini's overtaking Martin?
"Nothing strange or different from what Jorge had done with me in the sprint in Qatar or India. In fact, in those cases, he had been even more aggressive."
Bastianini went outside the limits of the track, though.
"Enea went out to apologize to Martin, and blue doesn't give penalties. I see it as a normal overtake, and I'm not saying that because I'm biased. I know that no one likes receiving it because it already happened to me with Martin. If you do something, you also have to be willing to receive it. It was the last lap of the race. Jorge was a bit wide, and Enea had to let go of the brakes for that reason. It was a consequence."