Francesco Bagnaia won the Sprint race of the MotoGP Austrian GP in Spielberg this Saturday. The Ducati rider took the lead after Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati) cut through the chicane at Turn 2 without giving back a second, as the rules require, which also earned him a Long Lap penalty.
The Italian spoke about the situation that set his rival back: ‘I saw that he went wide. I exited super well from the turn 1, so I just decided to go on the outside and I said: «Now I will brake like in qualifying, if he wants to brake like me, he will go wide absolutely». He did it and he went wide’.
Regarding Martín’s penalty, Bagnaia commented: ‘When the lap finished and I saw that he was 0.3s behind, I just said: «Okay, he will get a penalty because he didn’t lose one second». For sure when you cut a chicane you are already losing time, but rules are rules and they say that if you cut, you have to give one second back, and he didn’t’.
With Martín out of the fight, the two-time MotoGP World Champion began focusing more on preparing for the main race, as he admitted: ‘From that moment I just decided to understand perfectly everything about the race – the maps, more things with the rear tyre. I just decided to go as smoothly as possible to prepare tomorrow’s race, because it was enough to beat the guys behind’.