2024-10-05 08:44:03
Pecco Bagnaia had resistance today in Motegi. That resistance was called Pedro Acosta, although it was his downfall but also his glory. Acosta didn’t start very fast, but it didn’t take him even one lap to catch up with the tail of the Desmosedici de Bagnaia. It was then that the Spaniard hit the Italian with an epic blow.from which he was unable to recover until the end.
And he recovered, winning the race, but because Acosta fell to the ground with no other choice. The GASGAS rider gave the victory on a plate to the Ducati rider. Adding the victory and defeat of his main opponent at the moment, Jorge Martín, from the podium, Pecco has now closed the gap in the general classification.
The Italian, reigning world champion, remains second in the general classification, but only 15 points away and with one more strength than Martín for Sunday’s race. “Everything is going well from the beginning of this end of week,” Bagnaia said happily upon arriving at parc fermé.
Bagnaia’s strategy was to “sacrifice” performance to understand a delicate track, says the Ducati rider: “It wasn’t easy in the race because we decided to sacrifice a bit of performance to do an alignment lap, which saves fuel to better understand the track conditions, even if I then had to do the entire Sprint with just one map”.
As for Acosta, the Italian himself was fascinated by his pace, stating that “I was going very fast” and that his fall was no coincidence: “When I told myself to slow down a lap to lower the front temperature, it just fell off.”. However, he believes that the Spaniard “I was squeezing hard, but within limits”; The problem, he explains, is that “On the way back it was still drizzling a little. And finally it happened”.
The question that haunts Bagnaia is what would have happened if Acosta had not fallen: “I don’t know how it would have ended if he had continued, but he was going very fast and he will definitely be my opponent tomorrow”. Be that as it may, the only thing he appreciates is that “The important thing is to stay in front of Jorge, then everything will be fine.”.
As for Martín, who is now only fifteen points ahead, he says that he doesn’t know “where I was, only once on the big screens I saw that I had a big difference with me“, and which inform you of your position only in the event of a fall: “They only inform me if he is out of the race.”
Read also: Acosta falls at the top of the Sprint after taking pole in Japan and gives the victory to Bagnaia
A race that the Italian himself, popularly nicknamed ‘calculator’ for his particular management of risk and points, was rated as “under control”, also with Marc Márquez and Enea Bastianini lurking: “At the start of the last lap I had a 1”3 advantage over Enea, so I told myself that I could slow down even for just a second without them being able to catch me. I saw that it was starting to rain again, today I didn’t want to take any risks and I gave up on staying within that margin”.
#Bagnaia #wins #miracle #matters #staying #ahead #Martín