MotoGP Misano J3, Debriefing Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati/): "Next time, I want to win!", etc. (full)

After Jorge Martin's error of judgment in the 7th round, the Grand Prix MotoGP from San Marino to Misano could have extended its arms to un Francis Bagnaia in search of redemption, but that was without taking into account an opportunistic Marc Marquez who forced the double reigning world champion to slightly revise his claims, as he explains in his debriefing after the race...

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

Hello, welcome to the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, welcome to the post-race press conference, after a spectacular Red Bull San Marino Grand Prix. Top 3, another Ducati podium for the 400th MotoGP race in the four-stroke era. What a place to do it for Gresini Racing's Marc Marquez! Marc, back-to-back wins in 2024. Second place, a double second place here, in front of his home crowd, for Ducati Lenovo Team rider Peco Bagnaia, and to complete today's podium, Ducati Lenovo Team rider Enea Bastianini. Gentlemen, congratulations to all three, it was a really tricky and demanding 27-lap race.

One of you is of course the world champion Pecco Bagnaia. Pecco, you did 27 laps mentally and physically very intense, mentally because you were trying to assess the track conditions, physically after the crash last weekend in Aragon, so to come back with two second places, you must be very satisfied…

Francis Bagnaia : "Yes, well yes. It's clear that we want to win in any case, but as soon as it started to rain, I saw Jorge enter the box, in the pitlane, and I said to myself "I don't have to take any risks, he won't score any points".
The smell wasn't rain, so I was sure it was just a few drops of rain. And other than that, I just tried to be competitive when it started to rain, but I could see Marc was coming and he's the bravest in these conditions. And as soon as he passed me, I tried to overtake him again, but I didn't have a good chance to do it. The only possibility was to try a dive bomb and that was not the right way. So I tried to follow him, and in the last four laps I started to lose time, and my fitness was such that I decided, "OK, we'll finish second." And from that moment on, I started to feel a lot more pain because I was less focused on the performance, and from that moment on, it was very, very difficult.
But today Marc was just faster and he showed a lot of courage when it started to rain, and from that moment on it was difficult to overtake him because the pace was similar, very similar. I was faster than him in Curvone, in the fast Turn 11, but he was much faster in Turns 15-16, and it was like a rubber band, and it was difficult to overtake him."

A great weekend, as you mentioned, after what happened to you seven days ago in Aragon. You said that in the last four laps, when you started to lose a bit of concentration, you felt a lot of pain. Can you tell us exactly how you feel? And if you had had that kind of pain for longer, would it have been more difficult to stay on the podium?
“No, until I was very focused on speed I was able to ride well, but as soon as I lost the thread a little bit because I saw that Enea was 4 seconds away, and behind Marc I started to take too many risks, turn 8, turn 10, the front started to lock up a lot, and I just decided to slow down a little bit. And from that moment on it was a disaster, for four laps it was a disaster. But in any case, even if I had been at 100%, it would not have been easy to beat Marc today, because his pace was fantastic.
He did 31.5 on the 20th lap, so I think that was the moment where he made the difference, and nothing more. For the next time, the chance is that in two weeks we will be back here and I will be at 100%, so we will try to have another chance of victory.

How much information did you get on the grid about what was expected rain-wise, with your team watching the rain radar?
"In my case, yes, I looked at the radar and I was absolutely sure that the rain would not come. But Davide before the race said "it will not rain", while..." (Laughs)

Marc Marquez: "So next year I don't need to believe Davide?"
"Never believe Davide when it comes to predictions. He's incredible, every time he says something, it's the opposite! Every time (laughs)."

Last Sunday, when you were in the gravel, if someone could have told you straight away that you were going to take second place and a big championship win the following weekend at Misano, you would have taken that as a victory, wouldn't you?
“Yes, after what happened last week, yes, given that on Monday I was not able to do much, I was in a lot of pain, and it was not easy. But then we worked a lot, as always, with my team, and Marco, my physio, did a fantastic job. My friend Carlo did the same, so I am very proud of what we did, and it was not critical like last year, because last year it was more difficult. But I think the arms and shoulders are more delicate when you feel pain in that area, compared to the legs. The legs, you can manage a little better by using the arms more, but you cannot use the legs to be fast like when you use the arms, so it was a little more difficult to ride. And today I was able to ride as I wanted, but I felt a little pain in the last part of the race. And yes, it doesn't taste like a victory, because it's not a victory, but it tastes good because today... yesterday I was angry because I had the chance and I didn't take it to win. Today I did my best and I didn't win. So to do more than that was difficult."

We talked about team communication. Not only on the dashboards, but also the teams talking to the riders. Today, could this have been an ideal situation or could it have been beneficial for the riders?
"It depends on how they develop this kind of thing, but we already have all the data possible on the track, on the pitboard and in our dashboard. So I'm not in favour of it."

Pecco, you did the warm-up with the soft tyre. And with these conditions and the rain before the race, I thought you might also use the soft for the race: what made you change and use the medium?
"In my case, because on Friday I did a lot of laps with the medium, and I knew that the potential was high, and that this morning we had to try something on the bike, we changed the setup a little, and it was better to try the setup with the same tires as the day before, so the sprint one. But I was already sure that the right choice was the medium."

You came here just 20 points behind Martin and you finished just 7 points behind Martin, but without a win. Would you take that result to Misano 2?
“No, no, because I am a believer, so I want to win. Yes, it is always like that. You always prefer to win, in any case, but today, for example, I got 19 points with a second place, but today, second place is a huge result in terms of the championship, and if you had asked me this question before this weekend, yes, I would have signed. But for the next time, I want to win!”

Actually, on a race like today, when the rain starts to fall, and on a track like this with these very fast right-handers, how can you judge how much you need to reduce the pace when you enter these corners?
“When you are in the lead it is very difficult to understand the limit. I entered Turn 3 and I saw on the giant screen that Frankie had crashed in Turn 1, and from that moment I thought that maybe it was more slippery than I expected, and I was very far from the white lines, the kerbs, and in Curvone, in Turn 11, for example, I used the outside kerb a lot, and from that moment it was impossible to use it because it was very slippery. It is the most difficult when you are in the lead and it starts to rain.”