Sky Racing Team VR46 did not expect such twists and turns in the race, but ultimately saw one of its drivers finish on the podium and the other make a good comeback. The team thus goes on vacation as leader of the World Championship.
This time, the performance within the team came from Luca marini. He, who has often been injured since the start of the season and who has never really been able to show his potential because of that, was once again preparing to suffer. But after good tests, he, against all expectations, achieved the best qualification of his career by finishing second, on the first row.
Following an excellent start, he led a good part of the race before finally finishing on the first podium of his career, in third position: “The race was long and hard. We had a good start and during the last laps I tried to overtake Mir but I couldn't. It's a shame, but I'm really happy to have achieved my first podium. Thursday I didn't even know in what conditions I was going to finish the race or if I was going to be competitive until the end because of my shoulder injury and there I got on the podium. The weekend was almost perfect. We worked hard from the free practice sessions and we made good progress in qualifying. I want to thank the whole team and the people who supported me this year. To get to the top, it is important to start with the first steps and not stop, to continue with will and to believe in it. »
On the other side of the box, the leader of the Championship, Francis Bagnaia, had a usual weekend: good tests and a very good qualification. But while he started third and had maintained his position on the first lap of the race, he was forced to avoid the fall of Mattia Pasini in front of him and leave in the gravel. He thus lost a lot of time and found himself twenty-sixth.
He managed to move up to twelfth at the finish line, but conceded valuable points to his main opponent in the Championship, Miguel Oliveira: “It’s definitely not the race I was hoping to do. I'm really disappointed because we had the pace to fight at the front, but unfortunately the tire pressure dropped after my contact with Pasini and it was very difficult to keep the pace of the drivers in front to regain positions. I found myself at the back of the pack, in 26th place, and I gave my all so as not to lose contact with those in front of me. Coming up fourteen positions and finishing twelfth was really tough, but that's racing. I'm happy to still be first in the Championship, and I'm very happy for Luca who had an excellent weekend. I would have liked to fight with him. »
