GP Aragón, Bagnaia: “I hope a lot of people have been silenced after this last weekend”

Pleased, but not overly so, with a second-place finish behind his future team-mate Bastianini, Pecco Bagnaia nevertheless closes in on Quartararo, now just ten points behind the Frenchman with five races still to run. Momentum is with the Italian right now, thanks also to the Yamaha rider’s DNF.

“There is no one real favourite for the title right now”, begins Bagnaia, “Quartararo’s still ahead, but we’ve made up many points.”

“I could sense Bastianini was close”, comments the Ducati rider in reference to the last lap. “I knew he’d try and pass me. I was ready but I didn’t take that corner too well and ran a bit too wide, but the level we maintained was incredible. Bastianini was better than us.”

“When I saw the maxi-screen with the words “#20 crash” and realised Quartararo had fallen, I approached the race as usual, trying to achieve my goal. We can only be pleased, as we’ve won the constructors’ title today with five races still to go.”

“I hope that after the weekend, we've silenced a lot of people, because it was hell after the Misano race. There’s never been team orders, I’ve never asked for team orders, we’ve just been asked to respect each other and today we did just that. Bastianini won fair and square, he did well and I have nothing else to say except that it’s all good as it is".

 Bagnaia: “I’m annoyed I’ve broken the trend”

Are you not annoyed your winning trend has come to an end?

“It’s annoying, when you know you’ve given your all. I could have managed the last lap better, it was too easy to lose these 20 points. It was easier to make a mistake than do well.”

So it’s almost better that Bastianini won then…

“No, I wanted to win (he laughs). People can now see that any ideas they formed at home were wrong. I haven’t been given team orders, and that’s only right. I was the first to say I didn’t want team orders. Having Bastianini so close today was motivation, it spurred me on. We made the difference.”

And from now on, people will say the opposite.

“You hear a lot of useless chat, but we just try to do our best. We set records, we are fast, there are setbacks but we’re fast. In the end, we’re always up front, we’re working as well as we can and if we continue like this, we can do very well.”

Does it bother you when people say “Marquez isn’t here and so”…

“It doesn’t bother me, yesterday I was told that I’m too sensitive. It’s true, I’ll try to be calmer from now on.”

Did you see the Quartararo-Marquez incident?

“I saw it. I think Quartararo wanted to catch up as quickly as possible having lost some positions off the line, Marquez lost the rear and Quartararo was right on him. The collision was violent, particularly the second one. On lap two, the bike and bits of the bike were still on the ground, it wasn’t very safe. It would almost have been better if we had a red flag, I didn’t really agree it with the race continuing.”

Which of the last five tracks can prove decisive?

“Right now, any of them. Thailand will be very important, Malaysia too. We’ve reached a great level and can be strong even at unfavourable tracks. It will be important not to throw anything away.”

Is your mental process of “I’m focusing on me and not others” something you’ve developed alone or with someone?

“I’ve focused more on myself, if I crashed I knew it was my fault. I’ve tried to exclude the various things that make me ride well and consider those that, when I think about them, make me fall. By excluding them, I’ve taken a step forward.”

Traslated by Heather Watson