MotoGP Malaysia Day 3, Debriefing Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati/1): "I'm a healthy guy, a real sportsman, so I don't like this kind of thing", etc. (full)

The Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang offered us the pinnacle of talent for three laps MotoGP, with the confrontation on the razor's edge between Francis Bagnaia et George Martin.

With little left to lose with a 29-point deficit before the Grand Prix, the Italian did not give up in the face of the Spaniard's relentless attacks, and in the end he reduced his deficit to 24 points, taking his tenth victory of the season. It will probably not be enough to bring him a third world title, but what a beautiful and intense battle it was, between these two great champions at the top of their game!

As usual, we report here his words during his debriefing, without the slightest formatting, even if it is translated from English.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the post-race press conference after a thrilling Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit. Once again, it was Ducati GP24s that locked out the top three positions. Your winner for the 10th time in Sunday’s Grand Prix in 2024, reigning World Champion, Ducati Lenovo Team rider Pecco Bagnaia, Pecco is only the 4th rider in the MotoGP era to win 10 Grands Prix in a single season. Prima Pramac Racing’s Jorge Martin sits in second place and leads the World Championship by 24 points with one round to go. Ducati Lenovo Team rider Enea Bastianini completed today’s podium, just as he did yesterday in the Tissot Sprint. Gentlemen, well done to all three! The conditions were very difficult today.

Pecco, we're going to start the press conference with you because it was an incredible show in the first 3 or 4 laps, and an incredible fight you had with Jorge Martin. You said yesterday that it was a race you had to win, and you won it. How important is this win for the championship, obviously, and tell us about that incredible fight with Jorge at the beginning…
Francesco Bagnaia: “It was fantastic, because we fought hard, it was quite aggressive, but clean, because we never touched each other, and I knew that after 3-4 laps, if I was in front and pushing, I was able to open that gap, not only with the pace, but also with the temperature of the tyre. But we know that at the moment, in the championship, we are making the difference, and that gives us the potential to open the gap, and even if we slow down a little bit, we finish at the same distance, 7 seconds ahead of the third. So it is something that we have to improve for the next race in Barcelona, and we will try to give the slipstream to everyone during the weekend, so that someone is in the middle. And I will have to win both races, so we will see, but in any case I am happy for today, and it is a pity for yesterday because I hit the same bump as yesterday today and I did not crash. So sometimes things go wrong, but we are happy for what we did, happy for the weekend, and move on to the next race, fully focused on trying to win both races."

Obviously you had a lot to lose if you didn't finish this Grand Prix today, you were going to lose the world championship. I mean, what risk did you take by fighting with Jorge and opening up the gap at the front? Because it seemed like you were in control, but I'm sure there were a lot of risks taken at the front…
“I knew my pace was good enough to attack, but I thought the same yesterday and it didn’t go as well, so I just tried to respond to every attack in the best way possible. And the one I didn’t expect was in Turn 5, when he resisted on the outside, but apart from that I was just trying to brake as hard as I could to pull away and that was enough. But today Jorge did a fantastic job again, and with 3-4 laps to go he was chasing again. It’s very hard, but he’s showing that the level, our level, right now is incredible.”

Pecco, still fighting to win this third consecutive world championship. It will be difficult to recover these 24 points, but you are still in the race, so there is still a chance to retain the title…
“Yes, mathematically it is still possible. We know it is quite difficult, but in Barcelona anything can happen, like my crash in the sprint race when I was riding with a one-second advantage trying to avoid any mistakes, and I crashed the same way. The conditions will be more difficult than in June, because it will be colder, and two corners in Barcelona are quite tricky: they are Turn 2 and Turn 5. So it will be important to try to be competitive, but we can, and I also need Enea (laughs).”

Pecco, why are you still using the old, shorter front fork? Do you think this is a factor in the crash, or not?
“No, it’s more in terms of feeling. And at the moment of the crash, the front was not bottoming out, so it’s not the case. I use it because I prefer to feel the toe-stop and with the longer one, it’s harder to feel it. In the changes of direction, I feel more agility with the shorter one, so I always prefer it. I just want to do Qatar with the longer one, but Qatar is different from all the other circuits, and it’s from Austin that I use the shorter one.”

How do you manage, despite the pressure of the title fight, to maintain a serene relationship? I mean, from the outside, it looks peaceful. I don't know if it really is...
“For me it’s very easy, because I’m not the type of guy who wants to be brutal off the track and then needs to be brutal on the track, or to be aggressive pushing others, to be the one who doesn’t respect his rivals. I’ve never been like that and I never will be. If Jorge started doing that, I would change, but Jorge is more or less the same as me. So respect is definitely the most important thing and it will always be like that, from my point of view. So I don’t understand why we should be enemies off the track and not talk to each other, or be rude, and so I prefer that.”

Was there a moment before the race where you considered a strategy where you might have slowed the pace to try to bring Marc and Enea into the fight to take points from Jorge?
"No. I'm a healthy guy, a real athlete, so I don't like that kind of thing."

I think you are the sixth rider in history to win 10 or more races in a season in the MotoGP class. It is an amazing achievement. How does it feel to be there with riders like Agostini, Doohan, Marc and Valentino Rossi too?
"I feel very good and very proud, but I think I have a record: winning 10 races in a single season without being the championship leader, so it's a good record too (laughs)."

Did the red flag make a difference to your race or do you think the first few laps would have gone pretty much the same, depending on where you were and how you started?
"It was the same. I was just hoping to see fewer laps than to take one away. But no, because the position was already the same, so for me the strategy was the same."

At all the circuits so far, we have seen a big difference in the total time of the races with the new Michelin tyres, compared to last year. This is the only circuit where, if we add the two minutes you spent in the last laps, the total time is higher than that of Enea last year. Why?
“The temperature, the temperature! In the test we had problems with the central part of the tire because with the softest compound we already had blister after 10 laps. So they changed the tire a little bit, they put another compound in the center of the tire, and these two things, the temperature, the conditions, and also this tire, made the pace not as fast.
Maybe also because we did 4 laps in a fierce fight, so maybe the first four laps were much faster. The first two laps were where the rear tyre was giving the maximum and we lost it fighting, so they had their chance.

To be continued tomorrow…