Bagnaia: Not using new tyres ‘was my decision’, was it the wrong one?

With rain never far from the Sepang circuit which was again proved right shortly before FP2 as extreme rain led to a lengthy delay to both the end of Moto2 FP2 and the second MotoGP session getting started, Bagnaia now faces the possibility of needing to go through Q1 which is not something he’s done much of this season.

Conditions for Saturday again appear to be unpredictable, and with Bagnaia 11th on combined times, the choice not to use a set of soft tyres this morning could turn out to be the wrong one.

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Title rival Fabio Quartararo did sneak into the top ten, however, Aleix Espargaro did not, meaning he is also under threat. 

Speaking after FP2, Bagnaia said the decision was his as he didn’t expect rain to fall for FP2.

"Was my decision because I wasn’t expecting the rain. This is the main thing," added Bagnaia. "Also, it was very important to do laps with the medium tyre and I wasn’t expecting this rain. 

"But in any case it was very important to understand whether the medium tyre can be a good tyre [for the race] and sincerely, I’m quite happy with what we did with the medium because in the last lap I was the only one who improved the lap time on the last exit with the used medium. 

"But considering how fast the riders with the soft have gone, I think the soft tyre is quite bad for the race."

While the medium looks set to be a race tyre for some riders, the hard tyre is expected to be a competitive tyre especially if conditions are hot. 

And although Jorge Martin’s fastest lap in FP1 involved him using a hard tyre on low fuel, Bagnaia was not convinced by the potential of it.  

"Yeah he did [make a good lap]. He did a 59.9 but I think this was really a ‘push’ lap on this hard [tyre]," added the Ducati rider. 

"I’ve already seen that on the data that in the second lap time, but [mainly] the third lap that the spin was quite high. 

"It’s difficult now because the grip level this morning was very low. Tomorrow will be better for sure. 

"The rain has also cleaned the track a lot and also then, when I did two laps on the slick tyre this afternoon the grip was quite good. But it was difficult to improve the position."