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When Martin arrives at parc ferme, Bagnaia stands to one side. He knows that today, at Barcelona, he is not center stage. Despite his 11th win of the season, Pecco has emerged defeated. Tonight he will take the number 1 off the fairing of his Ducati and is aware that he had everything he needed to keep it.
"Maybe I'll need a few days to accept it, but after the crash in the Sprint in Malaysia I understood that I would be obliged to win - was his first reflection - Now I'm serene, I knew before I started that it was going to be hard and I did the maximum, everything I could. Jorge did well, especially he did less zeros than me. With 8 it is difficult to win the title, although this season I scored more points than last year. In terms of wins I dominated, but it wasn't enough. That' s okay, I'll try again next year, without doubting what we've done."
You left Martin in the spotlight.
"I always empathize with others and I know it would have been wrong to take the spotlight away from him, my win is important, but Jorge is the one who made the difference. I didn't see the point of being in the middle, Martin deserves it, he's a great rider. I have the knowledge that I was stronger, but I made too many zeros, in the future I will try to be more careful in some situations."
Your relationship has not broken down during this challenge.
"We know each other very well, and if someone other than me had to win the title, I'm glad it was him. He deserved it, he did an excellent job, and I smiled seeing him celebrate because I know how good that moment is. You try to achieve that goal your whole life and when you get it you feel incredible emotions."
Does one have to know how to lose?
"I think there is nothing dishonorable about losing if you do it the right way. Everything is important, this is a lesson, I know I lost because of my mistakes and that makes a difference."
The first lesson?
"I have to learn how to handle certain situations better, because three times I crashed because of contact with another rider: in Portimao with Marc, in Jerez with Brad and in Aragon with Alex. I was knocked down, but in all those cases I could have avoided it. I say this now, but it's logical that when I'm in a race I just want to get as far in front as possible. With Marc I could be content, with Alex I could wait, like with Binder."
Regret?
"The thing that bothered me the most is that I didn't push myself more at the beginning of the year, it took me too many races to figure out not to use the new swingarm and fork, I lost time. I won in Qatar, but in Portimao and Jerez I was not as fast as usual, the same in Austin. Jorge was able to be more consistent, he was more content. The hardest mistake to accept, however, was the one in the Sprint in Malaysia, because I didn't do anything wrong."
How will you forget this defeat?
"I don't know what I will do, but I will try to enjoy what we achieved because I am proud of this season and of my team that helped me whenever I was in trouble. I am looking forward to Tuesday because we will have something really good to try in testing. Then I will go on my honeymoon, and I think it will help me a lot to relax. In the last two seasons the number of things to do during the weekend has increased a lot and you get more tired on the mental side, racing has become the easiest thing to do (laughs). Finishing 2nd is not a victory, but it's still a good result and we know why we got it."
Doesn't the 11th win help to sugarcoat it?
"I'm not at a point in my career where I don't want to look at certain numbers, they're not important. I'm glad I achieved them, but I think I still have about 10 years ahead of me to keep improving. The most important thing, though, will be to increase the number of world titles, and I will try to do that. I do not consider this as a real defeat because I am someone who learns from his mistakes and I know that I lost this championship because of my mistakes. Even Marquez won two titles in MotoGP, only to lose in 2015 and win four more in a row."
