Pecco Bagnaia sees positives from puncture-ruined Sepang MotoGP race
Pecco Bagnaia considers his Malaysian GP as positive despite retiring
Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia says his Malaysian Grand Prix was “definitely positive in several ways” despite a puncture forcing him to retire from Sunday’s MotoGP race.
The double world champion had a confusing weekend at Sepang, as he started Friday out of the Q2 places and was visibly still struggling with stability issues on one of his GP25s.
But he then came through qualifying to take pole and dominate the sprint, a week on from finishing second-to-last and over 30 seconds off the lead in the Saturday race in Australia.
He led in the early stages of the grand prix, though his choice of medium front tyre seemed to hold him back as he was easily picked off by eventual winner Alex Marquez on the second tour.
Pecco Bagnaia was then struck by a puncture on lap 12 of 20, before retiring on lap 18.
Bagnaia defends his Malaysian MotoGP front tyre choice
Bagnaia defended his front tyre choice, as he felt he was able to brake strongly in defending against KTM’s Pedro Acosta and believes he was in a position to keep fighting for second in the latter stages without the puncture.
That aside, the steps he has made on his bike has left him feeling optimistic about the coming final two rounds - even if he is wary to get ahead of himself.
“We definitely did a good job, but we weren't able to finish it off in the best possible way,” he told Sky Italy.
“We were in a tight fight today, and I was trying to manage the gap to Alex as best I could.
“Right choice of front tyre or wrong, it would have gone the way it did, so there's no telling how the finale would have gone.
“Up until that point, I was trying to be perfect with the rear tyre, and I was able to brake hard enough to defend myself from Acosta.
“Let's see what happens next; this weekend has definitely been positive in several ways, and we'll try to continue the work we've done.
“I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, and we'll see when we get to Portimao, which is a track with a lot of ups and downs, and you need stability.
“But, overall, we worked well this weekend and we'll try to confirm that.”
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