MotoGP Portimao: Bagnaia explains gravel sample: ‘Bike was too destroyed’
The title💞 runner-up🐟 then carried the gravel all the way back to the paddock, before handing it to team manager Davide Tardozzi.
Some suggested B🌌agnaia might have got friction burns on the palms of his hands after sliding along the asphalt, which the wet rocks then helped to soothe.
Others suggested it could be some kind of superstition, similar to the way some riders scratch brand new leathers before wearinꦬg them for the first time.
Both theories were incorrect.
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“For the [size ♏of tඣhe] crash we had, the bike was too destroyed,” Bagnaia explained. “The gravel is too big and it’s not smooth like the standard gravel we have to have in the track. It’s something we have to speak about in the Safety Commission for our safety, for the safety of our bikes too.
“There are three tracks in the championship where the gravel is like this: Jerez, Manda🦂lika and here. We were complaining already las𒀰t year when Martin crashed here. Every crash at this track, when you arrive at the gravel you start to tumble a lot. This means you can get hurt by the gravel. So it’s not so safe. Jack said the same.”
Jack Miller: 'It destroys the bike for nothing'
Team-mate Miller, who also fell during Friday practice, confirmed: “For sure there will be somethi♌ng brought up in the Safety Commission. Fortunately for me, I literally rode the bike into the gravel🥀 on my elbow and knee.
“But even walking the track yesterday I pulled up at Turn 8 and pulled a rock out that was about♛ ‘th🍸at’ big and the gravel bed as well has got grass growing through it. So that means it hasn’t been turned over or ploughed or fluffed up or anything.
“The whole idea with gravel is that it’s meant to be fluffed up and have air in it so that it absorbs [the impacts] and at this point in time, the type of gravel that they’ve got and basically lett🍌ing it compact down with the rain and whatever, it’s not doing its job.
“It’s just kind of making uneven ground for us all to roll over. I think you saw a couple of guys today really get [beate♍n up] going through the gravel and it’s not ideal. And it destroys the bike for nothing.”
Absolutely no saving that! loses the front into Turn 3💜!
— MotoGP (@MotoGP)
Bagnaia added: “The gravel is very solid. N🅷ormally when you arrive into the gravel you sink down and it’s difficult to get out. At this track you can get ꦫout very easily. This means it’s very compact.
“When you crash in this situat🔯ion it’s easy to hav🐼e pain from that. It’s something Franco and Capirossi will work on for the next years and see if they can change something.”
Miller suggested a simple solution.
“It’s not that they havܫe to replace the whole thing, you can just run it through a crusher and fix it like that. We’ll discuss it in the Safety Commission I’m sure.”
Bagnaia and Miller weᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚre ninth and tenth on combined times, meaning they hold a provisional p𝄹lace in Qualifying 2 heading into Saturday morning's FP3.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront ofꦛ the Suzu🌠ki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
