He avoided a penalty at the start, when he came this close to a “jump start,” but he ended up getting one on the final lap, just by touching the green. In the Assen Sprint, Pecco Bagnaia crossed the finish line in sixth place, but a millimeter-wide run off the track at the final chicane dropped him to seventh. The Italian thus saw his position snatched away by teammate Marc Marquez, whom he had just overtaken in a head-to-head battle that wasn’t exactly the most diplomatic. For Bagnaia, the penalty is “on the borderline”; he widened his line to avoid rear-ending Martin—a “safety maneuver,” he says.
It was nonetheless a short but meaningful race, demonstrating his growing rapport with the Ducati GP26.
“Today I came very close to jumping the start— Bagnaia admits right away —I was too ready at that exact moment: when the light was about to go out, I started to release the clutch, then I engaged it again for a split second, and when I let it go again, everything went haywire. But it was my mistake. The procedure took a long time; the light stayed on for quite a while, and by the time we got to the grid, it had taken us so long to get out… maybe I was a little too nervous. I need to stay calmer.”
Aside from the start, though, the weekend is looking good.
“Yes, with a better start, I wouldn’t have ended up back there, but other than that, we’re doing well. The pace was good; I was riding fast. Marc wasn’t easy to pass: at one point I got close, but it was a tough moment. At Turn 6, I was practically on the grass, so it wasn’t exactly easy. But as soon as I passed him, I managed to catch up to Martín. The problem is that by then it was too late.”
Then there was that little mistake on the last lap that cost you a position.
“Yes, a little mistake—I was about to run into Martín. He came out of the last chicane really slowly. I was very close; I tried to go on the inside, but he closed the line, and to avoid hitting him, I had to open up a bit more. In my opinion, though, I didn’t really cross the line: more than half of my tyre was still on the kerb. The sensor there is very close, and it triggered. Too bad—for me, that penalty is a bit borderline.”
So you’d like to review it?
“I’d like to review the footage and maybe talk about it with Freddie Spencer or Crafar, just to get a clearer picture of that situation. I ended up there because I was trying to avoid hitting him from behind, so it was a safety maneuver. And, I repeat, in my opinion, I wasn’t completely in the green zone. Maybe in cases like this, we should reconsider the matter a bit.”
Have you regained your feel for the bike? And your desire to ride as well?
“The desire to ride never went away. As for the feeling, though, I didn’t just rediscover it—we rebuilt it. We’re not at 100% yet, but we’re working on it.”
But today you almost got past Marquez in that big left-hand turn. That’s no small feat. You did something similar in Brno too: it seems like you’re making good progress.
“But this is a track where I definitely feel more comfortable than he does. From behind, I could see he wasn’t riding as smoothly and cleanly. The problem is that here, if you can pass right away, you’re good. But if you get stuck behind someone, it gets really difficult. I lost too many laps today. By the time I got past Marc, there were only a few laps left—I think six. Then it took me two or three laps to catch up to Martín, and I stayed there because I was losing too much time at Turn 7 and Turn 15. With those vibrations, I couldn’t really get right on his tail.”
Speaking of Turns 7 and 15: in the fast left-hand section, it seemed that you were losing a lot of ground to Martín.
“A lot of vibrations. Too many. It was vibrating like crazy, and I couldn’t stay close to Martín. I know Marc had the same problem too, so it’s hard to understand, because we’d never had it here before. Nothing yesterday, nothing this morning. It showed up today, and we need to figure out why.”
Today, Aprilia took a one-two finish and had four RS-GPs in the top five. What do the Aprilias have that the others don’t here?
“They’re faster in a single lap; they have more traction. However, at least for now, I don’t think they have an edge over the race distance. I think the potential to fight for the win is there. Today, without that start, I would have been right there battling it out with Raul and Ogura. Absolutely.”
Can you learn anything from Di Giannantonio, who finished a bit ahead of you?
“He did well, especially in the early laps. In terms of riding, I think we’re on par—now we’re able to be just as fast too. Up until today, he was gaining a little on me in the third sector, but we’re really talking about a very small margin. Also because it’s hard to make a difference on this track: we’re all very close together. But it’ll definitely be interesting to see what he did.”
Earlier you mentioned the start. Is it safer or less safe without the lowering device?
“In my opinion, it’s not safer this way. It’s true, you start off slower, but there’s more room to get it right, and in fact, everyone tries to get a better start. Today I saw Quartararo coming into the first braking point and I thought, ‘If he makes a little mistake, he’ll take out two or three others again.’ So no, for me it’s not safer this way.”
About qualifying: at one point, did you not use a soft tyre or did you do one less run? What happened? Did you not exploit the full potential?
“I went out, and on the first tyre, Marc and Acosta were right on my tail. I didn’t want to do a 100% lap—I didn’t want to push them—so I stopped early. Then I did my second time attack giving it my all, but here the tire only lasts one lap, so you have to do it right away. Maybe yesterday, in terms of feel, I was in a better place. My pre-qualifying time wasn’t that much slower—three-tenths and a half in the end—but that tire had six laps on it. So we need to figure out what we can do to get back to where we were yesterday.”
Do you think you’ve improved in the Sprint races? This year you’ve had three second-place finishes, a win at Brno, and you didn’t do badly today either.
“Let’s just say it took me two years longer than it should have to figure out what to do in the Sprints. Now, if I see that I can go for it, I go for it. If, on the other hand, I realize it’s better to play it safe, I try to finish the race. It wasn’t always like that before: sometimes I pushed too hard. Maybe becoming a dad has made me more mature!” jokes Pecco. “Joking aside, I think that, counting only the points I’ve earned in the Sprints so far, I would have won the title in 2024. So yes, it’s an improvement.”
Di Giannantonio said that he might be able to race on softs tomorrow. Is that a possibility for you?
“For me, the right choice is the medium tyre. For tomorrow, the key will be to fix some of the vibrations we experienced today at turns 7 and 15, both left-handers. But aside from that, the pace is there. In my opinion, we’re very strong on the medium,” concluded the Turin native.