The Sky VR46 team returns from Le Mans with opposite results within its box: on the one hand, Francesco Bagnaia won for the third time this season, but on the other Luca Marini was almost unable to turn of the weekend due to his shoulder injury.
Francis Bagnaia However, his weekend got off to a bad start. As soon as FP1 had started, he was the victim of a big high side which made him feel good, but it was without knowing his determination. Eighth in the session despite this, he then led FP2, finished third in FP3, before achieving the first pole position of his career in Moto2 during qualifying.
After a very good start, he held the lead in the first corner, and never left it for the entire race. Never really threatened by Álex Márquez, he knew how to manage the gap from start to finish to win for the third time since the start of the season with more than two seconds ahead.
With this new victory, he has a total of twenty-five points ahead of second in the Championship, the equivalent of a victory. Little by little, he asserts himself at the top of the ranking and is very satisfied with it: " I am very happy. Winning the race at one of my favorite circuits is a great result which rewards me and the whole team for the work done since the bad crash in FP1. We continued to work and improved in each session, especially in qualifying. The race was tough, I tried to impose my pace, but without forgetting to manage the wear of the rear tire in the first laps in order to be competitive at the end of the race. I won three of the first five Grands Prix, I am 25 points ahead of the second, but we remained focused. »
For his teammate Luca Marini, on the other hand, the weekend was very complicated. Recently injured in the shoulder, he suffered in each session, without being able to play up front. Twenty-sixth in the combined times of the free practice sessions, he qualified in twenty-fourth position. Due to a penalty received following the Jerez Grand Prix, he had to move back six places on the grid to start thirtieth.
With such a place, in addition to the pain, his Grand Prix seemed compromised. This was unfortunately confirmed since after only one lap he returned to the box: “The weekend was really difficult for me, but I tried to give 100%. I struggled during free practice, and I preferred not to take part in the Warm Up in order to save money, but during the race I immediately understood that I was not going to be able to keep up the pace. We have two weeks before Mugello and I will try to recover. »
