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Bagnaia took a big risk today. The crash in pre-qualifying for the Argentine GP could have cost him dearly. "As I was sliding, I could see myself already 11th by a few thousandths of a second," Pecco was able to joke. Contrary to predictions, he finished the session in 10th place, enough to take a place in Q2. With the scare over, the Ducati rider analyzed the day, which did not start under the best auspices.
"Unfortunately, this morning, when I started, I kept feeling like I did in Thailand," Bagnaia explained, "The bike was working, but I didn't feel extremely good, especially in braking and corner entry. So I stopped, talked to the team and we changed several things. It worked, because in the afternoon I immediately felt definitely better, I had the bike more in hand, it was going better in braking. Obviously, we changed direction from what we had taken in testing, but the starting point is already better and it was a nice surprise."
Was the crash the only negative point of the afternoon session?
"I crashed, but that's okay, I made the first time attack without overdoing it, I also made mistakes in some corners, so I wanted to push harder because I thought I had a 3 or 4 tenths margin. I entered the corner with less brake, tighter, the rear pushed on the front and I lost it, but fair enough. It's too bad because I wanted that lap, to feel that I was fast again."
How did you turn it around?
"To cut a long story short, we need to have more load on the rear, but we had gone in the wrong direction. I still need a different balance to make the bike more stable, but I tried to adapt and touch the bike as little as possible. Tomorrow we will do more testing to try to manage everything better."
Are you confident?
"We solved the bulk of it and that's what I was looking forward to. Tomorrow the track conditions will improve, as will my feeling, because as of now we are only talking about details. In my opinion all this will help me, especially for the sprint. Now I can focus on myself and we will take another step forward."
Why is there such a difference if the Desmosedici hasn't changed much since last year?
"The bike has great potential, it is already at least at the same level as last year. I used the GP 24.7 today though (laughs)."
Were you surprised to see Marc Marquez again in front?
"No, I knew he would push because he has always been competitive in these conditions. What impressed me the most was Zarco, who did some incredible things. Also Di Giannantonio, who didn't do the winter tests and is already very fast."
Will you be able to fight with Marc tomorrow?
"We'll see, the track will improve. There are many competitive riders on this track."
