Bagnaia: “The most important thing is to finish in front of Jorge”

The Italian Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP23), said he was “happy” after finishing third in the Malaysian MotoGP Grand Prix. because, as he stressed, “the most important thing is to finish in front of Jorge” without any of them having “problems.”

“We managed to find our performance again in one lap, because from Barcelona I was not on pole and it was very important, so I tried to give everything, but fighting with Jorge we lost a little time. Then I tried to chase Bastianini and Márquez, but it was too dangerous“, Bagnaia admitted.

“I tried everything, but the most important thing was to finish in front of Jorge without any of us struggling“Well, I’ve beaten him in the last races, but he always has problems and this is the first time since Austria that I beat him on equal terms and it’s important for Qatar,” insisted “Pecco” Bagnaia.

The world championship leader recalled from the duel with the Spaniard that “Jorge was very good at the entrance to be fourteen and there he passed, but he took a little longer to cross and I was ahead of him. It’s important not to get ahead of him, but I don’t expect him to do the same. It’s important to win the battle and the truth is it was fun,” said the Italian pilot.

“A 14-point lead is certainly better than nothing or trailing and, if it was a normal season, with one race every weekend, it would be a good distance, but since 37 points are distributed every weekend it is not much,” said Bagnaia about his position in the world championship.

“This is a small advantage. In Qatar we will try to understand everything from Friday and be in first place like this weekend, get the pole or the front row, at least, and in the race try to fight like we did today, but Qatar will be ‘new’ for everyone, with a new re-asphalt and the new tire,” continued the reigning champion.