The MotoGP French Grand Prix was challenging for Francesco Bagnaia. The Ducati rider led the main race, but in the final laps, he dropped to third, unable to hold off Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati) and Marc Márquez (Gresini/Ducati). Despite finishing third and retiring from the Sprint race, Bagnaia is reasonably satisfied.
When asked if he left Le Mans with mixed feelings, the Italian responded to the official championship website: ‘Absolutely. But I want to have a 360º vision of the weekend, and it’s quite positive. We started well, we were always competitive. We just had these kind of problems on Saturday that didn’t help at all. On Sunday we started better and I was able to fight, but I missed the last laps. They were faster, they had something more. Finishing third is always a good result for the championship, but for the next ones we want to improve’.
Regarding what caused him to lose ground to his rivals in the final laps, Bagnaia explained that his issue was with the third sector of the circuit:
– Sector 3 was my weak point. On Saturday was a good point, but on Sunday I wasn’t strong. I was losing too much time at turn 9. I was trying to the maximum, Sector 1 and Sector 2 were mine, but the amount of gap I was taking in Sector 3 was too much. It’s something to improve, but we have time, but considering that we didn’t do the Sprint, it was important to finish the main race.