'Pecco's move has set the rules of engagement with Marquez'
'That contact is the acceptable level when they next battle, and we’ve got to believe there will be a next battle!'
The thrilling victory duel between Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez in Sunday’s Spanish MotoGP was unsurprising the main topic of conversation on the latest Crash.net MotoGP podcast.
Bagnaia inherited the lead when title leader Jorge Martin crashed out, just ahead of him, on lap 11 of 25.
But Marquez passed Marco Bezzecchi for second place a few laps later, then hunted down Ducati Lenovo’s reigning double MotoGP champion.
Marquez dived for the lead, twice, at Turn 9 in the closing stages. But Bagnaia forcefully retaliated on both occasions, memorably rubbing his front wheel on Marquez’s shoulder as he squeezed inside the Spaniard.
Bagnaia then set a new lap record and, despite Marquez doing his own fastest lap on the final lap, took arguably his best MotoGP win so far by 0.372s over the Gresini rider.
“That was probably Pecco’s best race, all things considered,” said Crash.net MotoGP editor Pete McLaren. “He’d had the crash in the Sprint, not his fault, but it increased the pressure not to lose any more points.
"He starts seventh, puts in a fantastic outbraking move to make up places, then puts the pressure on Martin. Martin makes a mistake and then he has the battle with Marc and comes out on top."
“An incredible weekend of racing and you could feel it was all building up to a crescendo as Marc was catching Pecco in the grand prix,” added Crash.net's two-wheel reporter Robert Jones. “Bagnaia was trying to hold on but, as he said after the race, he also had a plan for how to deal with Marquez’s attacks when they came.
“Marquez had already demonstrated his pace on used tyres on the Friday, so it wasn’t a surprise that he was strong, but I don’t think we expected he’d be able to close the gap on Pecco. It was really impressive, because Bagnaia didn’t make any mistakes.
“Marquez was making up so much time in the two left handers into the stadium section, so you knew Turn 9 was going to be his best chance. The battle between them was something special and a fantastic advert for MotoGP.”
Social media manager and podcast host Jordan Moreland agreed:
“Through 7-8-9 Marquez was just incredible and when he made that initial move with 5 laps to go, you could hear the crowd roar. It was like someone had scored a goal in a World Cup final!
“Pecco was very smart. He knew Marquez was quick through that section and he explained after the race ‘I’ll brake as hard as I can, and if Marc then runs wide as he passes me, I’ll go straight back underneath him’.
“But when he went back underneath, Marquez continued on the outside and there was contact on the exit. Incredible drama! Thank goodness they didn’t crash!”
“It was certainly close wasn’t it!” McLaren added. “A fantastic comeback move by Pecco. Did he learn from the Portimao incident? In Portimao, regardless of who was to blame, Pecco didn’t get far enough alongside to ensure he didn’t go down if there was contact.
“It’s also interesting because Pecco's move has set the rules of engagement: That it’s okay to try a move knowing there is probably going to be contact with another Ducati rider, as long as you both stay upright.
“So that amount of contact is now the acceptable level when they next battle, and we’ve got to believe there will be a next battle!
“We saw tense faces in the Ducati garage at the time and I think a lot of us, when we saw the contact, thought ‘Here we go, Marc’s going to give it back to him’.
“But he didn’t. He almost seemed to hold back, certainly compared to his hard passes on the likes of Mir and Oliveira in the Sprint! There was no do-or-die into the hairpin, even when Pecco was still within range.
“Marquez seemed to control himself, he was almost tentative in his passes with Pecco. Marc certainly couldn’t afford to fall for a third race in a row, but maybe he was also thinking long-term.
"As he said this weekend, he wants a factory ride. So the last thing he needs is take out the star of the factory team!
“Either way, there’s now only one place higher Marquez can go on the podium and that’s the top step.”
