The Catalunya GP nearly derailed Francesco Bagnaia’s quest for the MotoGP title. Early in the race, the Ducati rider experienced a dramatic highside that raised concerns, but fortunately, he didn’t sustain any injuries that would prevent him from competing in the San Marino GP less than a week later, where he finished third. Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi recalled this episode from the season.
The Italian official told the championship’s website: ‘For sure Barcelona was «the» race. It was the race where both riders got very, very bad injuries – for Pecco luckly was not so bad as the first image shows. Honestly at that moment I thought immediatly: «OK, the championship is gone, I hope Pecco is not too injured». But in the end I guess he showed he is a champion’.
The San Marino GP followed and, competing at home, Bagnaia endured the pains to be third. Tardozzi praised that performance and attitude by the two-time world champion: ‘Even recovering from this really bad accident – that isn’t only a broken bone, it’s a kind of mental problem because this bad accident was always in his mind and maybe for this some times he wasn’t at 100%. He was very proud about his result, while we know that in good shape he could win also in Misano because he is very strong there. But anyway, we appreciate his attitude because after this accident for many riders would be easy to think about it and close the throttle. But he wanted to give us and to the fans the best result possible and I know it was very, very painful for him to finish the race. After the race he had big health problems. He raced like a hero’.