The main race of the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix was intense, witnessing an interesting duel for victory. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) emerged as the winner, but he had to overcome a tough Marc Márquez (Gresini/Ducati) to achieve it.
Speaking to the website Corse di Moto, Marco Melandri attributes the good race to the performance of the Spaniard, considering the strong level at which Bagnaia was:
– It was a fantastic race, thanks to Márquez in the sense that if he hadn’t livened it up, it would have been boring because Bagnaia showed an impressive pace: he made everything look easy, which is impossible. Bagnaia’s overtake on the first lap at turn six was something incredible. For me, in the middle of braking, it was impossible to think he would brake, but he did it with extreme ease.
The former rider has no doubt that Márquez gave another meaning to Bagnaia’s triumph: ‘I think Pecco’s greatness is due to Márquez’s strength. If Marc hadn’t had such a good race, trying to overtake him and fighting until the end, we wouldn’t have seen this value from Pecco. Bagnaia showed impressive composure, tactics, precision, and control of the situation. He had already shown it in the past, but in Jerez, he exceeded himself in all areas. Just like Márquez, because he had an incredible race: he managed it slowly, like an ant, he was calm in the first laps, patient, and managed to catch up with Pecco. He was very fast in the left turns and had difficulties in the right turns. I don’t know if this was due to the setup or his physical difficulties’.
Melandri also expressed a wish: ‘Let’s hope there are many more fights like this with [Jorge] Martín, [Enea] Bastianini, or even Aprilia and KTM in the mix’.