MotoGP, The Ducati team plays its joker card: Bagnaia and Bastianini’s pressure below the limit

The factory team decided to play a joker card in today's race in Sepang, the one allowed by the tire pressure regulation. While Martin had already been warned, Bagnaia and Bastianini had not received any warnings, so they did not risk any penalties if they went under the limit. This allowed their technicians to take risks with lower front tire pressure in the long race, safe in the knowledge that they would not be penalized even if they made a mistake in their calculations.

This is what happened, because Enea (who won) and Pecco (3rd) were found to have a lower tyre pressure than allowed and therefore warned for the first infringement, as had happened to Jorge Martin in Thailand, where he had won the race.

It's normal to think about a strategy, also because the race in Malaysia was the last on the calendar where it made sense to take a risk. In the night race in Qatar and in Valencia in the autumn the temperatures will be lower, it would make less sense to play around with pressure there. At Sepang, however, this strategy paid off and there is nothing illegal in having implemented it, because the regulations are clear: for the first infringement there are no penalties, for the second instead 3 seconds are inflicted which becomes 6 for the third and 12 for the fourth.

The list of riders caught outside the limits at Sepang also includes Luca Marini, Alvaro Bautista and Iker Lecuona.