#JapaneseGP
At the Motegi circuit in Japan, our Suomy rider Pecco Bagnaia redeems himself after the fall suffered at the Indian Grand Prix and achieves two positive results thanks to which he maintains his role as leader of the world championship.
Starting with the second time, the Sprint Race of the Japanese Grand Prix doesn’t start in the best way for Pecco, who immediately loses two positions and finds himself fourth behind the Australian Jack Miller. However, our rider Suomy does not give up and starts a heated fight with his former teammate, managing to overtake him just three laps to the end of the race, thus conquering the third step of the podium.
Pecco achieves an even better performance in Sunday’s race, despite the difficult conditions in which the riders are forced to race due to the heavy rain which, shortly after the start of the race, hits the Motegi circuit, forcing the riders to return to the pits to change bikes.
Immediately after returning to the track, Pecco finds himself in second place, less than a second behind Jorge Martín. Shortly afterwards, however, Pecco makes a small mistake, allowing Martín to bring the advantage back to over a second, a gap that our Suomy rider cannot try to recover, since on the thirteenth lap the intensification of the rain forces the organizers to interrupt the competition.
When the rain drops in intensity the riders are made to return to the track to compete in a race of just 12 laps, but the conditions worsen again and after the deployment lap the organizers declare that there are no conditions to continue. However, having completed 50% of the total distance, the GP is declared concluded by awarding full points to the participants.
Thanks to the two podiums achieved in Japan, Pecco maintains the championship lead, but he is now only 3 points ahead of Jorge Martín who obtained two victories at the Motegi circuit.
“It was a good race but very risky. In the last two or three laps, the aquaplaning started to be too heavy; we were all with the medium rear, so it was on the limit. Before the interruption, I was closing the gap to Jorge, but then I made some mistakes and was close to losing the front, and I was back to the same gap as before. In any case, we must be happy with this result. We know perfectly well how risky it is racing on the wet, and finishing second is a good result. Now, with three points between me and Jorge, it becomes interesting, but I like it because I think it could be a good competition between us.”
Francesco Bagnaia – 2nd
World Standings P. 1
Next Round:
Grand Prix of Indonesia
14th Oct – 15th Oct
Click the button below to find out all the images of the #SuomyCrew during the weekend in Japan.