Winner today in the Sprint at Mandalika, Pecco Bagnaia had Marco Bezzecchi as his main pursuer, with the VR46 Racing Italian coming very close to causing a crash, something he managed to avoid and earned praise from the world champion. Bagnaia is really interested in the performance of the tires, and explained that, given the conditions that are expected, the medium tire will be a better choice compared to the soft one.
Speaking to the press, Bagnaia explained what happened with Bezz, and paid his VR46 Academy teammate a compliment: ‘I heard him before, and then I saw him. When I started to hear him and then I started to see him going on the outside, and he had good reflexes, I think, with everything that happened because it’s very easy to block the front there, and it was very close’.
Asked if he had done any work this morning to improve the balance of the bike and really push the front, the Italian clarified: ‘Yesterday we had problems during [qualifying] practice and everything I tried wasn’t working, and the first step we took was this morning when I had a better feeling with the bike and this morning’s improvement was good and then I understood something more during qualifying but I didn’t complete what I wanted to because of the yellow flags. I think we need something more for tomorrow morning, which we’ll try in the Warm Up’.
With an eye on tomorrow’s long race and the choice of tires, Bagnaia said: ‘I think that due to the conditions and the temperature we won’t be using the soft. For today it was a good choice but in the last few laps it was already spinning too much and so I believe that tomorrow it would have a big drop [in terms of wear] from lap 14/15, graining, and so it’s better to be more competitive with the medium’.
The mother of all close calls! š±
— MotoGPā¢š (@MotoGP) September 28, 2024
Bezzecchi drops to 4th š#IndonesianGP š®š© pic.twitter.com/Cj1EkJGFCN
