"Makes Me Angry" - Bagnaia Talks "Not Risky" Marquez Crash
Categories: MotoGP
Published: 24th March 2024
Following a disappointing zero-point Portimao race Sunday, Pecco Bagnaia talks his “not risky” crash with Marc Marquez.
Ducati’s mainstay, Pecco Bagnaia, faced a tumultuous weekend at Portimao. His hopes of a victory in Saturday’s sprint race were dashed as a late-stage misstep relegated him to an okay yet unsatisfying fourth place. Sunday’s race proved to be an even bigger disappointment, ending in a collision with Marc Márquez.
World Champions clashing💥
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) March 24, 2024
High drama as @marcmarquez93 and @PeccoBagnaia collided and slid out of contention but no further action was taken ✅#PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/AgYErWuThq
In the aftermath of Portimao’s race Sunday, Bagnaia, reflected on the unfortunate ending to his race:
“I was actually optimistic before the start of the race,” he revealed, recounting his pre-race sentiments. “I felt better after the warm-up and was planning to attack.”
“Initially, I wanted to manage the tires, but then I encountered problems early on. The guys in front were too fast for me. I just tried to manage the tires, but it was difficult.”
“When Pedro arrived, he was too fast for me,” he admitted, acknowledging the rookie’s remarkable speed.
Turning to the pivotal incident that marred his weekend, Bagnaia offered a candid account of the collision with Márquez. “Marc wanted to overtake me and went wide,” he recalled.
“I wanted to cross the line and we collided. It makes me angry, but it was a racing incident. We have to move on and think about the next race.”
Not the way we wanted to end our #PortugueseGP, but this things happen sometimes! 💔 On to the next, Nuvola Rossa! 💪🏼👊🏻 @PeccoBagnaia #ForzaDucati #DucatiLenovoTeam pic.twitter.com/4VleEGqFdj
— Ducati Corse (@ducaticorse) March 24, 2024
“What does a rider do when he’s overtaken and the rider in front of him then deviates from the line?” he affirmed.
“He wants to overtake again and score more points. From my side, it wasn’t risky. It makes me angry because I had to end the race with zero points.”
“The same thing happened to me in 2023, but that time it was my own mistake. We still have 38 races ahead – that’s a lot. But I wanted to avoid a zero in the second race, just be more consistent.”
However, even without the race-ending crash, it wouldn’t have been Bagnaia’s strongest of Sundays. As the Italian faced a major drop in race pace even before his coming together with Marquez, he identifies two explicit sections of the circuit where he faltered.
“I couldn’t cross the lines behind the guys,” he confessed. “They were especially fast in turns 4 and 5 – I made up ground elsewhere.”
“But in turn 4, I lost two-tenths every lap, and then also in turn 5. It was difficult to understand why I was taking different lines. I kept going wide there.”
