Bagnaia: “I was risking too much” trying to keep pace with Bezzecchi

Francesco Bagnaia admits the pace set by Marco Bezzecchi during the MotoGP Sprint in Assen was too hot to handle for the world champion.

Robert Jones

24 Jun 2023

Francesco Bagnaia, MotoGP sprint race, Dutch MotoGP, 24 June

Like in Sachsenring, Bagnaia took an early lead during the 13-lap sprint before seeing another Ducati come through and clear off.

Jorge Martin seven days ago, this time it was Bezzecchi who was already a two-time winner this season prior to today’s sprint race.

Those wins both came in a Grand Prix setting, meaning Bezzecchi is now just the third rider to have won a main race and a sprint.

But for Bagnaia, the reigning champion still increased his series lead despite losing points to his fellow Ducati rider, and after giving everything he had, the Italian was content with his performance.

"I’m happy! I tried everything and when you try everything and don’t succeed, you can still be happy.

"I was trying to close the gap to Bez, but unluckily, in the last two laps I started to feel like I was risking too much.

"The rear was a bit on the limit so I decided to slow down a bit and control the gap from behind. Yesterday morning was quite tough but we improved our situation a lot.

"In the qualifying I was feeling great so I tried to push but the first sector is where I’m losing a lot. We have to understand why.

"Apart from that I’m happy with the feeling. The new bike [here] needs some more laps but we already know where to improve and where we can do a little step for tomorrow."

Bagnaia appeared to struggle late on as Brad Binder and Fabio Quartararo significantly reduced his advantage.

And although he was having issues with his rear tyre, Bagnaia admitted it was more to do with no taking any risks.

Bagnaia said: "I was knowing the gap behind and I was just trying to control as much as I could.

"In the last two laps I was getting a lot of chatter from the rear. I was risking too much to continue pushing and I saw that it was 1.3 seconds behind, so I decided to slow down a bit.

"It was quite tricky in the right corners and I was losing a bit."