Francesco Bagnaia finished the Sprint race on the bottom step of the podium in 3rd position. The Italian driver was unable to keep up with his great direct competitor for the title, Jorge Martín, who once again won Saturday’s race.
Asked if the result was positive and if the Sprint race had gone as he wanted, Bagnaia replied: “I’m happy with the podium, after the crash in India it was important to win points again. A bit disappointed because I was expecting to have more grip. This morning in FP2 I was much more competitive, in the first 3 laps of the Sprint I had a hard time overtaking Jack (Miller) because he brakes very late and I lost a lot of time behind him. There’s some work to do, I had a lot less grip today, but tomorrow will be different, I’m sure of that. Jorge (Martín) is riding very well and working very well with the team, perhaps better than us. We want to be where we deserve to be. On this track it’s very important to have good grip on the rear wheel, I’ve already compared my grip with Jorge’s and my rear wheel was spinning a lot more’.
At an increasingly decisive stage of the championship, Bagnaia needs to be competitive and consistent. The Italian also spoke about his race strategy and his mentality before each race.
– ‘Jorge, when he starts at the front, is very strong in the Sprint, he pushes a lot at the start which makes it very difficult to overtake him. I don’t think I have to change my strategy in races, I focus on being competitive and consistent and I think I have the right mentality. Today I lost two or three positions at the start and that’s what I need to improve on. If we can get past him (Jorge Martín) at the start and block him, then we’ll have a better chance of fighting for the win tomorrow. We’ll be careful with Binder too, because he’s very strong and it’s going to be difficult for sure. We decided to use a mixture of the new starting system and the old one, so as not to compromise my driving style, so we’ll see tomorrow.