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Bagnaia's streak of 4 consecutive podiums in the Sprints (and 3 wins) was interrupted at Phillip Island. After a good start, Pecco immediately realized he didn't have Martin's pace and then was also overtaken by Marquez and Bastianini. It wasn't necessaey to ask him what he throught about a 4th place that made him slide in the standings 16 points behind Jorge. "I'm definitely not happy, but we couldn't do more today. So it's okay and we have to improve for tomorrow," was his politically correct answer.
What happened.
"This morning I was fast in the wet, but in the dry I was not comfortable with the bike. With so much wind, the changes we made yesterday were not helping me and I was struggling in qualifying. So we made another change for the Sprint, but it made what was going well worse and didn't improve what was going badly. We have to do a reset and try something in the warm up. I've already seen the data and I think we have a good idea."
Did you have to run a defensive race?
"Despite the difficulties, at one point I tried to go after Jorge, but I saw right away that I would have to make do. With the wind, the front was closing in the fast points and I couldn't close the corners. I had to take a step back."
Bastianini took a few points off you. Still sure you don't want team orders?
"In front of me was Marquez and Enea is fighting with Marc in the championship. Right now it's right for Bastianini to do what he's doing, because next year he's going to go away and he wants to finish as far ahead as possible in the standings. It's right for him to be like that, it's not me who will ask for team orders - I've never done it and I never will."
Did you expect Martin to be so fast?
"After qualifying, I knew Jorge would have the margin. In my opinion today Jorge played with everyone, he could have won with even more advantage."
What is your biggest limitation?
"I have a lot of problems with the wind because the fairing does a sail effect, so I was going wide in all the corners because the front end was lifting. In qualifying I tried mounting the hard tire on the front to have more stability, but it didn't work."
It wouldn't be the first time where you struggle on Saturday and sort things out for Sunday.
"Hopefully, we will do our best as always. We know that this track, although I like it a lot, is not one where I go fast right away, as for example happens in Thailand and Malaysia. The goal for tomorrow is to try to stay as close as possible to Jorge and see what happens."
For the long race the soft or the medium rear tire?
"I saw Martin's data and he didn't have tire drops, I did, already on lap 6. We have to make the bike run better without using the gas to stress the tires less. Today the only rider with the medium was Bezzecchi and he was going pretty strong, we need to see his data. I am not ruling it out for tomorrow, I will try it in the warm up. By the way, it looks like there will be less wind and it will be warmer."
Let's talk about the local fauna: Miller was hit by a seagull that broke his windshield.
"On the warm-up lap a flock of seagulls flew across the circuit, luckily none hit me. It's great to race here, but these things are unpredictable. It's also nice to have all these animals, but something has to be done to improve the situation because it can be very dangerous."
