At the end of the first day, Francesco Bagnaia ranked in fifteenth position in 2'00.694, 1.073 behind Marc Marquez's best time. The young Italian was the fastest of the rookies arriving this year in the MotoGP category. On the second day, he ranked twelfth in 1'59.995, 1.098 behind Maverick Viñales' best time. He was inserted between the KTM of Johann Zarco eleventh and the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaró, followed by the brilliant Fabio Quartararo fourteenth. Like the day before, Bagnaia was the fastest of the four rookies.
It was on the third day that Pecco set the 2nd time in 1'58.995, then in 1'58.302, 0.063 behind Petrucci, and right in front of his teammate Jack Miller. Nobody expected such a fabulous performance from the young Turinese, against all the factories and all the official teams. Because actually who is Pecco Bagnaia? A rookie rider, who is discovering the MotoGP category, on an old Ducati Desmosedici GP 18.
“The tests went well because we worked a lot during these three days, analyzed Bagnaia. The first day allowed me to understand many things about the bike, and first of all to comment on riding it. It's very different from Moto2, because you have to straighten the machine more quickly when exiting a corner. This allows for better traction. That was one of the things I needed to understand.
“The situation has gradually improved. Today I behaved more like a MotoGP rider, which was my goal.
“My goal was to get under two minutes before the halfway mark, and achieving that was very important for us, but we need to focus more on pace for the race. It was okay, I can't say otherwise, but we need to improve further.
“In terms of braking, I can now brake very hard. It was difficult for me in Jerez, but now it was one of my strong points to go down to 1'59. We absolutely need to improve the race pace, even if I don't have the impression of excessively wearing the tires.
“But in racing you can’t know. If your pace is 0.5 faster, you will of course wear the tires more. So our goal in Qatar will be to be consistent with a fast pace. »
Bagnaia faces Petrucci and Miller with unequal weapons for the place of Ducati factory rider in 2020
After the disorderly departure of Jorge Lorenzo from Bologna, Danilo Petrucci inherited the place of Andrea Dovizioso's teammate, but only for this year. For 2020, there are three in the running for this position: Petrucci of course, but also Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller. The major difference between the three is that Petrucci and Miller have the all-new Ducati 2019 model, while Bagnaia has to make do with the 2018 type, like Avintia riders Tito Rabat and Karel Abraham.
This will not be a big disadvantage at the start of the season for the Turinese, who will have all the data recorded on all the circuits by Dovizioso, Lorenzo and Petrucci last year. On the other hand, it will become so as the season progresses, when the 2019 will be developed and progresses, while the 2018 will remain in its original juice until the last GP in Valencia.
Furthermore, it is interesting to note that Paolo Campinoti, the boss of Pramac Racing, signed Bagnaia on February 21, 2018 for two years, that is to say for the 2019 and 2020 seasons, when he had not not yet won a single race in Moto2. Fabio Quartararo, for example, had to wait for his superb victory in Barcelona to be entered in MotoGP. This was also the case for Maverick Viñales when he won the second Moto2 Grand Prix of the year in Austin in 2014 for Suzuki to invite him to the top category.
Others, on the other hand, moved to MotoGP without having won in Moto2, like Joan Mir (second in Germany and Australia last year), or Jack Miller, Bagnaia's teammate, who jumped directly from Moto3 to MotoGP . Hafizh Syahrin has never won in any Grand Prix category. In 97 GP, he was on the podium three times in Moto2 (once second and twice third).
Results of the third day of testing:
Reference times:
Official testing record (pole position): 1'59.053 by Dani Pedrosa (Honda) on 24/10/2015
Unofficial record: 1'58.830 by Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati) during tests on 30/01/2018
Lap record (in the race): 2'00.606 by Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) on 25/10/2015
Photos © Alma Pramac Racing
