Francesco Bagnaia stormed to victory in the Austriꦗan MotoGP, securing his third Sprint-Grand 🍬Prix double of the season.

A member of the VR46 Rider Academy almost since its inception, Bagnaia has grown as a rider under the tutelage of nine-times World Champion Valentino Rossi🍌. Before the start in Austria, he received some straightforward advice from his meꦗntor.

“Before the race, he [Rossi] just said to me that 🍌what I did yesterday [in the🥃 Sprint] was already good, so just try to repeat it,” Bagnaia told the post-race press conference.

Bagnaia continued, and expanded on the kind of fraternity that exists between th🐬e various VR46 Academy memb💞ers.

“After the race, he was just very happy, also because Celestino [Vietti] just won his first race of the year, he wasn’t in a good situation, so we are very happy for him; I think Bezzecchi did a good race also; Franky wasn’t the best race but he managed to come back a lot; so I think it’s a very good🧔 weekend for the Academy.”

Understa⛎ndably, the opinion of Rossi is one that Bagnaia values, and actively seeks out on race weekends, even when Rossi isn’t present at the⛎ track.

“It’s always important to have Vale with us, but I speak a lot with him also 🃏when he’s not here,” he said. “We text a lot, and I think he’s super useful because I need his point of view. So, when he’s here it’s true that he has to focus more on his team, but in the evening we spoke yesterday and on Friday. I need his point of view.”

Speaking more broadly about his race in Austria, 𝐆Bagnaia spoke of his satisfaction at his own pace, and how he managed the race.

“Yesterday was a ver💜y great race, with a bit of luck with Jorge’s 🍎penalty,” he said. “But then today I think we did a very fantastic pace. It was incredible, the speed we had.

“I was just trying to be a bit faster every lap compared to Jorge just to have this kind of gap in the last part of the race, and again control a bit w﷽ith the rear. I was having a lot of ‘waving’ [weaving] in the strai𝄹ght with the rear tyre, and it was important to have this kind of gap just to manage it.”