English
Italiano
Bagnaia hides his irritation with a smile because he knows that in the Sprint at Portimao he was the one who made the mistake and that he could have avoided it with a few more simple shrewdness. He was in the lead, managing the scant second advantage over Vinales, when with four laps to go he made a mistake at the braking of the first corner. That was enough not only to give up the chance to win, but also to get on the podium.
"It could have been 12 points instead of 6 - broods the world champion - The championship is long, there are still 39 races to run, and they would have made the difference. So it makes my balls spin, it's been a long time since I felt this good in a sprint race, and certain mistakes don't help. "
What happened in that braking?
"First of all, I'm happy that in a sprint race I was able to get a good start, stay in front and manage, the feeling was good and I'm finding more and more that explosiveness that I had been missing. Unfortunately, I didn't reckon with the fact that the first corner is very peculiar, the descent is steep, and I kept braking in the same way even though the tank was emptying. I could feel the rear end getting a little bit higher and higher, until I made a mistake and lost everything."
How do you react to this mistake?
"You have to take it positively with a view to tomorrow, try to take another step forward. Right now, I feel the rear of the GP24 is more ballistic than I would like, but we already know where to improve. Especially in the race, we'll use the medium tire, which I like a lot more, so it's all pretty good. Itwill be another story."
Fourth at the finish, the same position as in qualifying.
"It's two qualifying sessions in a row where I'm trying to ask something more from the bike that I'm struggling to get. At the penultimate corner in Qatar and the last one here in Portimao, forcing on the front I lost it. Both times I could have started on the front row instead of second, but the feeling in the race still improved."
Who will be the men to beat tomorrow?
"Definitely Maverick, Enea who will start better, Marquez, Martin...there are already too many and there are only three places on the podium and one to win. We'll see if we can do our best."
Did you have problems with vibration in the rear like Martin?
"Honestly, after going long I just tried to get to the end, so some of the problems were masked. But we know we put a lot of stress on the soft tire because, despite the suboptimal track conditions, we went very fast, it's a problem that can be there."
Automatic Translation by DeepL
