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After his fall in Portimão, involving Marquez, Bagnaia’s championship has been all uphill. With the zero he scored on Sunday in Portugal, the world champion now has to chase the leader in the standings, Jorge Martin, with a difference of 23 points. The good news for Pecco is that he likes Austin. He had won the Sprint there last year, but had fallen in the long race when he was in the lead.
Sounds like a good place for his comeback.
"The Grand Prix of the Americas is one of my favorite on the calendar. The track is fantastic. I really like Austin, and the mood of the event is also different than usual. I’m going to America motivated and ready to redeem myself. Last year, we had been competitive all weekend and, if I hadn’t fallen, we would’ve won, even in Sunday's race," Bagnaia recalled. "This, year I expect many fast riders, and it’ll certainly won’t be easy. But we have a good base from which to start. In the last GP in Portugal, the sensations on the bike was very good. But, then, we were missing something in the race on Sunday. So, it’s going to be important to work to prevent it from happening again."
The situation is different for Enea Bastianini, who’s regaining his speed on the Ducati, which he proved with his 2nd place in Portimão. And the rider from Rimini had already won in Austin in 2022.
"I'm glad to be back in America, where I couldn't race last year because of my shoulder injury. COTA is a track that I really like and where I have good memories of 2022, when I got my second MotoGP victory. My favorite of that year," Enea explained. "After the last weekend in Portugal, I’m arriving in Austin motivated and confident. I expect a very hard-fought GP, but we’re ready. We’re arriving with a good basic set-up, and we know what we need to work on, in order to improve. So we’re aiming to be among the role players of the weekend again."
