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MotoGP, Bagnaia: "Bastianini did me no favor, I would have won anyway"

"On the last lap I didn't take any risks, I knew I could manage my lead. I did the Sprint with a reduced power map because on the alignment lap I wanted to use it all to understand the track conditions."

MotoGP: Bagnaia:

From enemy, the Sprint race has become Bagnaia's ally. He has won six of the last 10, and his Motegi success is his third in a row on Saturday. It couldn't have gone better, Martin off the podium (and protagonist of the disastrous 11th time in qualifying that will also weigh tomorrow) is manna for the ranking. Pecco has shortened the gap, now 15 points behind, and the impression is that the Japanese GP is an opportunity not to be missed for him."Everything went well, right from the beginning of this weekend," the world champion commented with satisfaction, before revealing a backstory about his Sprint.

"In the race it wasn't easy because we decided to sacrifice a little performance to do an alignment lap without using the map that economizes consumption to better understand the track conditions, although I then had to do the whole Sprint with a map with less power," he explains, " In the end it all worked out well.

Acosta left you the win with a crash, how would it have turned out with him on the track?
"Pedro was going really fast. When I told myself to slow down a lap to get the front tire temperature down, he crashed. He was pushing hard, but staying within limits, however, that lap it was drizzling a little more, it can happen and he can afford these mistakes. I don't know how it would have ended, but he was going very fast and he will definitely be an opponent tomorrow. The pace was very good though, I could handle the race well."

Would a second place have been good anyway?
"It would have been a good result. The important thing is to be in front of Jorge, then anything goes."

On the last lap, however, Bastianini and Marquez caught up with you.
"Everything was under control. At the beginning of the last lap I had a 1"3 lead over Enea, so I told myself I could slow down even by a second without them catching me. I saw that it was starting to rain again, so I didn't want to take any risks today and gave up by staying within that margin."

Was the fight triggered by Bastianini with Marquez to your advantage?
"Aeneas did himself a favor, I would have won anyway."

Did you know Martin's position?
"I didn't know where he was, only once on the big screens I saw that he had a big gap from us. It is not yet the time to have this information, they only signal me if he is out of the race."

Spint was your weakness, has it become your strength?
"It's been a few weekends since we were able to improve on Saturday, I won 3 Sprints in a row. It is always important to win and get points, but I am happy with the work we are doing. I always focus on what I can improve and it is not an easy process. The Sprint is a type of race that is not too much in my wheelhouse, I prefer to manage, but I have been working to get on track and be competitive right away."

Yesterday you said that compared to Mandalika here is a different story.
"It goes much better than Indonesia, I can be faster. This is a track I like more, but tomorrow the conditions could be totally different, it looks like there could be sunshine and higher temperatures, we will have to figure out which tires to choose. Friday morning I had only done 8 laps with the medium, it hadn't gone badly, and in the afternoon Vinales had gone very fast with that tire. The performance of the soft was good today though, although it has a big slump and you have to manage it."

Automatic Translation by DeepL

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