Francesco Bagnaia finished Sunday’s Indian GP race without scoring. The Italian rider crashed on lap 13 and was out of the race. With this weekend’s crash, the Ducati Lenovo Team rider sees his lead in the championship reduced to just 13 points over Jorge Martín.
Asked what happened at the moment he crashed and what the main reasons were for the incident, Bagnaia replied: ‘I can’t say for sure what happened, I was giving it my all and decided to use the harder tire on the front today, the other Ducati riders were using the medium one, but as I’d been struggling with braking since the start of the weekend I was always on the limit and when you’re constantly on the limit you can crash, it happens. It was the only chance I had to fight with them at the front, Bezz (Marco Bezzecchi) was unbeatable today, even though I was at Jorge’s (Martín) pace today I didn’t increase the pace, it was the same as yesterday, I lost the front and these are situations that happen. These kinds of mistakes can’t happen and they’re the kind of mistakes I can’t make. Our strong point is usually braking and this weekend it was our weak point. We can’t figure out why, but we’ll work to improve and be more competitive in Japan’.
The Italian rider spoke about his physical condition and how he adapted his riding style to the difficult conditions that the Indian circuit caused during the race for his bike and his physique.
– ‘In Misano I was more conservative because of my legs. Here I still wasn’t 100% but the problem was really the braking, the front locked up a lot and the rear was shaking a lot, but the legs weren’t the problem. Today we tried to find a solution and we were able to be competitive with Jorge despite being on the limit, it was totally my mistake, right now I’m not having the best feeling with the bike and I’ve apologized to my team. At the start of 2016 the problem was the front under braking with the Michelin tires and that’s exactly what’s happening again, I’m sliding too much under braking and that’s what happened over the weekend. Compared to Jorge it’s difficult to say because he has a very different riding position, he’s in a good moment and I want to get back to good sensations on the bike. When we got to Misano I felt that the feeling wasn’t the best, I know that Bezzecchi and Martín are in great shape, but before Misano I was the first Ducati and second was a long way away from me, so I want to get back to being as competitive as I was then’.