MotoGP Malaysia: Francesco Bagnaia: “It was important to win this battle against Jorge”
Like in Saturday’s sprint, Martཧin attempted to overtake the reigning MotoGP champion, however, Bagnaia did✱n’t let the Pramac rider have the last laugh.
Three over꧒takes were tried by Martin, but Bagnaia responded immediately on every occasion.
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Speaking 🌌after the race, Bagnaia said: “Jorge was very good on the entry to corner 14 and I thought he would overtake, so I just tried to cross the line.
“It was very important to not let him be in front. Als♌o, I was not expecting his pace to be like it was. It was important to win🐽 the battle against him.”
Recent races had been a pr⭕oblem 🌌for Bagnaia, especially when it came to fighting Martin due to his below par qualifying.
But after claiming a seventh pole of the season, Bagnaia was pleased to h🦋ave rediscovered his one lap pace.
“I’m happy,” began the factory Ducati rider. “Overall we managed to finally find our♛ performance in one lap. It was since Barcelona that I wasn’t in pole position and it was very impꦯortant.
“I tried to do everything today but the battle with Jorge lost uಞs a lot of time. I tried to push and catch th💟ese two guys but it was very risky.
“The most important thin♛g was to finish ahead of ✅Jorge without both of us having problems.
“I already beat him in the last races but he was always having some issues. This was the first tim🔯e since Austria that I beat him in the same conditions.”
Although Bagnaia had no say in the fight for victory, the Italian was one of three riders that seꦯt a stunning pace.
The type of pace that led to the Malaysian Moto♍GP being 15 seconds quicker than last season.
Surprised🦂 with how much the pace has been moved forward in 2023, Bagnaia added: “I’m always surprised with the pace we are having in the races this seas🥀on.
“What was super༺ fast last year is normal this year. Today we finished the race 15 secon🐻ds faster than last year. We increased a lot the performance this year.”
