How Dani Pedrosa's "good suggestion" shaped Pecco Bagnaia's Austria sprint

Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia says Dani Pedrosa’s advice to focus less on results was “a good suggestion”, following a positive Saturday at the MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix.

The double world champion was forced to go through Q1 for the fifth time in a row, but eased through to Q2 and put his bike seventh on the grid.

In the sprint, he held on for sixth, having been one of just three riders to run the medium rear tyre instead of the soft.

Pecco Bagnaia says he was “feeling a bit better” with rear grip compared to previous rounds, following set-up tweaks overnight, while his decision to run the medium was directly influenced by comments ex-MotoGP racer Dani Pedrosa made on DAZN last week.

The 31-time MotoGP race winner advised Bagnaia to focus less on results and more on understanding his bike, which the Italian branded “a good suggestion”.

“This morning we tried something different on the set-up, and it was luckily in the correct direction,” he began.

“And from the morning, from the first laps on the wet patches, I was feeling a bit better.

“So, I was able to stop the bike more, use the rear more to turn, and the grip wasn’t that bad.

“It’s true that it’s something that is still lacking, but we did a step in front. So, maybe for tomorrow we can do something more.

“And the decision to go with the medium was just to prepare for the race of tomorrow, because with the soft I don’t know if would make something better; maybe in the first three laps I was able to attack more.

“But we decided to go with the medium because tomorrow the race will be very long and I needed to understand things more.

“I used what Dani Pedrosa said on DAZN last week, which is maybe I need to do more laps and understand the bike before controlling the results. And it was a good suggestion.”

Bagnaia was cagey on what Ducati did to his bike to improve his feeling, but noted that it was something his team had tried previously in a different way.

“Something that we already did but in a different way,” he said.

“This time it was working a bit better.

“It’s true that we are still missing grip, but luckily all the Ducatis are having the same issue, and maybe being altogether with the same issue will help to improve it.”