Francesco Bagnaia secured direct qualification for the second phase of the Qatar MotoGP Grand Prix yesterday, thanks to his eighth-place time in practice. The Ducati rider was even faster and could have been among the top three if not for having a lap invalidated due to yellow flags.
The Italian was pleased with his feelings yesterday but wasn’t too happy with his final position: ‘I’m very happy. It was just a shame, I was closing Friday on the top three with the lap time cancelled. It was just to be again on the top three of Friday after a long time. My feeling is great, from the first time we are not changing anything on the bike and this is great’.
According to Bagnaia there are still question marks around the tyres: ‘My feeling with the tyres was perfect in the morning. In the afternoon we had to try different tyres on the front but the feeling was not fantastic because I think the grip has to increase a lot and right now the only usable tyre for the race is the hard front. But the hard front is very hard and for the cold temperature maybe isn’t the correct choice. We have to wait for Saturday’s afternoon session to understand if the grip has increased and then decide what to do for the Sprint race’.