In the thrilling finale at Assen, Pecco Bagnaia managed to secure a spot in Q2. The Ducati rider took a big risk, as he was in 16th place with just 3 minutes remaining. Then came the last-minute surge to clinch a spot in the top five ahead of Marc Marquez. The Piedmont native worked his way up step by step, finding the right direction despite an uncalculated risk related to the tyres.
“Thrillers are all the rage these days,” he joked. “Let’s just say that when I found out I didn’t have another tyre, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. Obviously, you can’t warm them all up; otherwise, you risk ending up with a tyre that’s already been used. But I figured that, in the end, it’ll be tough to race on the softs on Sunday, so maybe having an extra tyre could come in handy. When I realized I didn’t have it anymore, it was a bit of a tough moment.”
That lap you set takes on even more significance…
“In free practice, I expected a bit more from the softs at the start of the session. When I started out, I didn’t feel particularly comfortable, but we realized the problem wasn’t the tyres. We’d tried a setup that wasn’t giving us the feedback we expected, and it took a couple of laps to figure that out. When we switched to a different setup—which worked much better—I was on my second run with the medium, and that’s when I felt comfortable. I was able to set fast lap times. In my opinion, on the mediums we were pretty close to Bezzecchi, who was the fastest. Right now they have a bit of an edge on the softs, but in terms of pace we closed the gap significantly over the course of the day, and I’m satisfied with that. In the time attack, however, I didn’t feel great with the rear tyre on my first attempt. On the second attempt, I did, but between the yellow flag and the red flag, I only had one chance, and on that lap I gave it my all. I definitely didn’t have the potential of a completely new tyre, but this is a track that lends itself well to not needing a huge exit out of the corner. Sure, you can feel a bit less grip, but it was still enough to stay up front.”
Will the soft be the right choice for tomorrow’s Sprint?
“The main issue is temperature. The tyre heats up a lot, and when that happens, it starts to make that constant movement that really bothers me. It starts doing that as early as the second or third lap. We’ll need to understand the situation clearly. Fortunately, the engineers are already working on finding a solution.”
Pre-qualifying was very up and down. From the outside, it all seemed rather strange: you were way back, then suddenly you moved up to the front. Does that worry you?
“No. On the medium tyres, I’d already set my best time and moved up to sixth place. Then I put on the first set of softs and improved quite a bit. The 1’31"5 lap time had already put me in fifth. On the next lap, I was running about a tenth and a half faster than that, so we were already very fast. In my opinion, there was the potential to lap in 1’31.1 or 1'31.2. The red flag caused us to lose a bit of ground, and then, with a tyre that already had six laps on it, it was hard to imagine setting the absolute fastest time. But we stayed very close to the leaders. The potential is there; we’re fast. We just need to find a bit more consistency, which isn’t easy on a track like this. The heat also puts a lot of strain on the tyres. Many of the crashes we saw today, across all categories, were due precisely to the high temperatures.”
How much does Assen help you compared to last year?
“It’s a track where I feel pretty comfortable even when I’m not 100% in sync with the bike. But I have to say that, compared to last year, today I’m able to brake it and get it to turn better. And that helps a lot, especially on a track like this.”
There’s been a lot of talk today about your brake discs. Can you tell us a bit about these 355s?
“This discussion actually started last year. I tried the 355s at Aragon and really liked them. The ones we’re using now are a special version developed for use even on tracks where it wasn’t possible before. Brembo has done a fantastic job, both for me and for the others. I think there are very few people using them, and honestly, I don’t even know who the others are. I’m really happy with them. I’d even use them at Phillip Island when the temperature with four degrees, because they really help my riding style.”
Have you been using them since Thailand and haven’t taken them off since?
“I’ve been using these specific discs since this year’s Jerez test. They aren’t the solution to every problem. They’re simply a help.”
Aside from the discs, how much does it help to have peace of mind knowing what your future holds?
“Actually, I’ve felt mentally free ever since the first race of the season, because everything was decided back then. So from that point of view, I’m completely at ease.”
How would you describe these 55 degrees on the track?
“I think it’s the highest temperature I’ve ever seen, and that contributed to the crashes. I don’t think the tyres have ever suffered as much as they did today. Tomorrow, if you start from the back, you risk struggling a lot with the front—in fact, I’ll try to be up front as much as possible.”
In the final stretch, you had a long line of riders behind you and only one chance…
“If you start thinking, it’s over. I just focused on going, that’s all.”