Francesco Bagnaia finished in second place in the sprint race at the Indian MotoGP Grand Prix. The Ducati rider held his position throughout almost all 11 laps without being able to challenge the winner, Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati).
The Italian believes it was the best result within his reach, considering the difficulties in braking compared to his main rival: ‘It was good; it’s never frustrating when you finish on the podium, for sure. It’s not the maximum result, but more than this today was too difficult to me. Following Jorge was too much. He has an advantage in terms of braking, like [Marco] Bez, that is normally where I’m doing the difference. But in the last two weekends my bike is a bit too nervous in this part and I’m losing the rear. I have a little chatter on the rear tyre and this is something that normally isn’t happening. I’m happy that we know perfectly what the problem is, so I’ll try to solve it for tomorrow’s race. And this morning I was the only one with the medium rear tyre and my pace was quite good and I was feeling good in terms of pace. So, let’s see’.
When asked if he has any ideas about what is causing the chattering at the rear, Bagnaia stated: ‘Jorge started to brake so hard in the last two weekends, but more here. Normally he isn’t one of the strongest in terms of braking. If I start to brake in the same point of Jorge, I’m going wide this weekend because my rear is not helping. It’s chattering and it’s not helpful. But it’s something that happened alone because we didn’t change anything on the bike. So, we have to understand; maybe it’s something we are not understanding from the data. But it’s a small thing that makes all that. But I’m quite sure, I know perfectly the potential of my team and we’ll figure out for tomorrow’.
According to the defending champion, the different construction of the rear tyre does not contribute to the issue: ‘Normally I like this rear tyre; it’s the one from Austria and normally in Austria I was so strong in braking. So, it’s something different. I’m quite sure my team already know what is happening, but it was impossible to adjust it for today. It’s true we had a lot of time, but it was difficult to know everything’.