#PortugueseGP
The one in Portimao, Portugal, was certainly not the weekend our Suomy rider Pecco Bagnaia was hoping for, despite managing to finish Saturday’s Sprint Race in the points.
Indeed, fourth at the starting grid, Pecco skilfully takes the lead of the race from the third lap and defends the first position until the ninth lap when he ends up wide at the first braking point, an error which costs him three positions and which forces him to cross the finish line of the second Sprint Race of the season in fourth place.
Sunday’s long race has an even more unfortunate epilogue for our Suomy rider, who finds himself in fifth position when, just with three laps to go, a contact between Pecco and Marc Marquez causes both riders to fall.
Pecco is now in fourth place in the general classification with 37 points, 23 points behind Jorge Martín, but our Suomy rider is already looking to the next race knowing that he has all it takes to close the gap on the current leader.
“I was managing the situation well, just as I did in Qatar, both feeling-wise and with regards to the margin on my opponents. Unfortunately, I didn’t take into account the drop of fuel level so when I hit the brakes, the rear unloaded a bit more, up to the point that I had no other choice than trying to avoid a crash. I had to run wider and lost ground. From then on, I only thought about keeping my position and make it to the finish line. Tomorrow’s race will be different, with a tyre that I like a lot more, so I don’t believe a similar situation will present itself. Unfortunately, these things happen, but what I know is that we made a big step forward today in terms of feeling and that translated into a good level of performance also in the Sprint Race.”
Francesco Bagnaia – Sprint Race 4th
“I got a good start but unfortunately chose the wrong line at turn three: I closed the line a bit, while the outside would have been a better choice. I wanted to overtake Enea in the early laps as I saw him having a bit of a difficult time, but at some point, I started experiencing a lack of grip at the rear-end which prevented me from pushing as hard as I wanted. We weren’t at our best and it’s clear we couldn’t find the perfect solution, even though the feeling was very good both yesterday and this morning. It’s a pity; we’ll now focus on the next race as after the warmup I felt I had the potential to battle at the front – but we weren’t able to capitalise. I’m particularly sorry because we have worked well, but we were missing something in today’s race.”
Francesco Bagnaia – Race NC
World Standings P. 4
Next Round:
Grand Prix of the Americas
Circuit of the Americas
12th – 14th April
Click the button below to find out all the images of the #SuomyCrew during the weekend in Portugal.