        In the slipstream of Rossi, Stoner and Agostini. Pecco Bagnaia comes to Sepang with a chance to follow in the footsteps of three great champions and put an all-Italian pairing back on top of the world fifty years after the last time (Ago and MV in 1972), bring the riders&rsquo; title back to Italy thirteen years after Valentino Rossi&rsquo;s last victory, and hand Ducati it&rsquo;s second MotoGP riders&rsquo; title. No mean feat, and one that Pecco is, quite rightly, trying not to think too much about. He can count on his experience in 2018 of course, when he won the Moto2 title at the same Sepang track. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not feeling the pressure right now&rdquo;, begins Pecco. &ldquo;I felt it more in 2018 actually, as I came here with a 38-point lead so I felt like I could really win, while this time I accept that it might go to Valencia. I&rsquo;m trying to take it as it comes and remain calm. I know that if we work well I can be up front, and then we&rsquo;ll see.&rdquo; Many riders have said you have a real opportunity here at Sepang. What do you think? &ldquo;I know I can be very strong, but remember that in 2019 it was Quartararo on pole and Vinales who won the race. We have two straights where we can make the difference and the bike has great potential, but tyre choice will be key depending on the conditions. I&rsquo;m trying not to think about the title&rdquo;. How&rsquo;s the comeback been for you? You&rsquo;ve come in for some criticism. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m quite used to criticism, as I get it even when I win. I&rsquo;ve felt good throughout anyway and my motivation has grown race by race, which I think helps me focus on the end goal. I&rsquo;m pleased to have got here, but now we need to bring it home, which is perhaps the hardest bit&rdquo;. Why do you think you get criticised? &ldquo;I honestly don&rsquo;t know, but I know I have nothing to prove. Constructive criticism is always welcome, while the rest it&rsquo;s best to ignore. The idea that I&rsquo;m up front because there are eight Ducatis makes no sense for example, as I&rsquo;ve won the races by myself, and I think the team and I have shown that our potential is really high.&rdquo;&nbsp; Bagnaia: "Portimao, Silverstone and Aragon the key moments of the season" What have been the most important moments so far? &ldquo;We made the biggest technical improvement at Portimao, which meant that from Jerez onwards we&rsquo;ve been in good shape and have only had to work on the details. From a motivational standpoint, the Silverstone win was important, as I wasn&rsquo;t the quickest. Then there&rsquo;s Aragon of course, where I made up many points to Fabio&rdquo;. Do you think Fabio has lost faith? &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll do all he can to catch up, and rightly so. We saw what he did in Australia, crashing and then trying to make up ground. That was a show of strength, as taking risks to catch up is worth more than lapping fifteenth without pushing&rdquo;. What kind of race do you think you can run? &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll try to win, that's what I&rsquo;ll be pushing for. It may rain on Saturday and Sunday but I&rsquo;m hoping for dry conditions, as I can be quicker but it&rsquo;s also harder to make mistakes.&rdquo; Traslated by Heather Watson Malaysia MotoGP, Aleix Espargar&oacute;: &ldquo;Stop Bagnaia? Almost impossible"       

"I was more stressed here in 2018, because I was closer to the goal. My motivation has grown race by race, now we need to bring it home&rdquo;

Malaysia MotoGP, Bagnaia: "I don’t feel pressure, I know it may go to Valencia”

        A cautiously optimistic Pecco Bagnaia is hard at work at Phillip Island. The Italian made the most of Friday&rsquo;s sessions, beginning to lay the foundations of a strong performance and conscious that it won&rsquo;t be easy to find the perfect setup. &ldquo;All in all, I&rsquo;m pleased&rdquo;, begins Pecco, &ldquo;as, although today&rsquo;s sessions weren&rsquo;t easy, I improved a lot. I thought the step we made in FP1 would see me ready for FP2 but as the wind picked up, I needed another step, particularly with regard to the front load. In the second half of FP2, I was fast on used tyres, which is important, while I&rsquo;m less happy with the flying lap, as I made some mistakes in both the first and fourth sector&rdquo;. Did you expect an easier start? &ldquo;I knew that the GP22 has less front load than the GP21, so it&rsquo;s normal to have some issues at a track where that is so important, but I&rsquo;m already in better shape than I expected&rdquo;. Bagnaia: &ldquo;Only normal that Honda has taken inspiration for its tail with wings&rdquo; Honda has presented a tail section with wings. What do you think? &ldquo;When somebody tries something new and it works, it&rsquo;s only normal for others to follow. Honda has probably noted how we&rsquo;ve been using the tail with winglets for a while, so they&rsquo;ve decided it&rsquo;s a good idea to replicate that. It can help at tracks like Phillip Island, where the bike tends to be twitchy&rdquo;. Ducati continues to set the technical benchmark. Do you agree? &ldquo;Definitely and that's nothing new, despite it not having won the title for several years. We&rsquo;ve done a good job this year I think, seeing as we&rsquo;ve always managed to stand out in difficult situations&rdquo;. How are Quartararo and Aleix Espargar&oacute; doing? &ldquo;Fabio seems quicker than Aleix. I know this is a Yamaha track, so I expected Quartararo to be fast. I was at his level at the end of each session anyway, though I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;ll see the conditions we had in FP2 again. If the wind were to drop, I think we could improve&rdquo;. Traslated by Heather Watson       

Pecco 8th: "The GP22 has less front load than the 21, so I expected a few difficulties. For now Quartararo is faster than Espargar&oacute;" &nbsp;

MotoGP Australia, a relaxed Bagnaia: "In better shape than I expected”

        Almost everyone has at least one social media profile, whether Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, or the more modern Twich and Tik Tok. The virtual world essentially goes hand in hand with the real world and provides an escape from daily life, although this can be a good or bad thing depending on how it&rsquo;s used. Almost all public figures, sportspersons included, have a social profile via which to communicate with their fans, but this tool can at times become harmful, intolerable. Something that Francesco Bagnaia hinted at in a recent interview, and something that Fabio Quartararo has recently demonstrated. Using this tool makes the difference It&rsquo;s one thing to share an adventure or a thought with your followers and engage in polite conversation, but quite another to receive messages of frustration from people you don&rsquo;t actually know, the so-called &ldquo;haters&rdquo;. Social media is definitely a double-edged sword and Bagnaia himself, just a few days ago, said as much during an interview with Alessandro Cattelan: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d have liked to race in an era when social media didn&rsquo;t exist, it would all have been easier&rdquo;. This says a lot about the bearing social media can have on a rider. And Quartararo has demonstrated this by deactivating his Instagram after a disappointing race in Thailand and despite the fact he's generally quite active on this channel. &ldquo;El Diablo&rdquo; often shares fun content and images of his training or his adventures with friends, not least best mate Tom and rally driver Dani Sordo. But not this time. His profile currently looks like this:  &nbsp; Time for a detox At such a delicate time in championship terms, Quartararo doesn&rsquo;t feel like interfacing with the virtual world, knowing that he needs to put the anger and disappointment behind him so as to be in the best mental shape for the Australian GP. And so he has decided that the best thing is to take some time out, as Bagnaia does on a regular basis in fact, leaving sister Carola to manage his profile and preferring not to be influenced by a world that is becoming increasingly savage. Already for us ordinary people, let alone for them. Traslated by Heather Watson MOTOGP, ALEX MARQUEZ LOOKS TO THE FUTURE: &ldquo;I&rsquo;LL HAVE NO EXCUSES WITH THE DUCATI&rdquo;       

Today&rsquo;s riders have to deal with these new tools, which can be a double-edged sword even for ordinary people, let alone for them

MotoGP, what bearing does social media have on the riders?

        Pleased, but not overly so, with a second-place finish behind his future team-mate Bastianini, Pecco Bagnaia nevertheless closes in on Quartararo, now just ten points behind the Frenchman with five races still to run. Momentum is with the Italian right now, thanks also to the Yamaha rider&rsquo;s DNF. &ldquo;There is no one real favourite for the title right now&rdquo;, begins Bagnaia, &ldquo;Quartararo&rsquo;s still ahead, but we&rsquo;ve made up many points.&rdquo; &ldquo;I could sense Bastianini was close&rdquo;, comments the Ducati rider in reference to the last lap. &ldquo;I knew he&rsquo;d try and pass me. I was ready but I didn&rsquo;t take that corner too well and ran a bit too wide, but the level we maintained was incredible. Bastianini was better than us.&rdquo; &ldquo;When I saw the maxi-screen with the words &ldquo;#20 crash&rdquo; and realised Quartararo had fallen, I approached the race as usual, trying to achieve my goal. We can only be pleased, as we&rsquo;ve won the constructors&rsquo; title today with five races still to go.&rdquo; &ldquo;I hope that after the weekend, we've silenced a lot of people, because it was hell after the Misano race. There&rsquo;s never been team orders, I&rsquo;ve never asked for team orders, we&rsquo;ve just been asked to respect each other and today we did just that. Bastianini won fair and square, he did well and I have nothing else to say except that it&rsquo;s all good as it is". &nbsp;Bagnaia: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m annoyed I&rsquo;ve broken the trend&rdquo; Are you not annoyed your winning trend has come to an end? &ldquo;It&rsquo;s annoying, when you know you&rsquo;ve given your all. I could have managed the last lap better, it was too easy to lose these 20 points. It was easier to make a mistake than do well.&rdquo; So it&rsquo;s almost better that Bastianini won then&hellip; &ldquo;No, I wanted to win (he laughs). People can now see that any ideas they formed at home were wrong. I haven&rsquo;t been given team orders, and that&rsquo;s only right. I was the first to say I didn&rsquo;t want team orders. Having Bastianini so close today was motivation, it spurred me on. We made the difference.&rdquo; And from now on, people will say the opposite. &ldquo;You hear a lot of useless chat, but we just try to do our best. We set records, we are fast, there are setbacks but we&rsquo;re fast. In the end, we&rsquo;re always up front, we&rsquo;re working as well as we can and if we continue like this, we can do very well.&rdquo; Does it bother you when people say &ldquo;Marquez isn&rsquo;t here and so&rdquo;&hellip; &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t bother me, yesterday I was told that I&rsquo;m too sensitive. It&rsquo;s true, I&rsquo;ll try to be calmer from now on.&rdquo; Did you see the Quartararo-Marquez incident? &ldquo;I saw it. I think Quartararo wanted to catch up as quickly as possible having lost some positions off the line, Marquez lost the rear and Quartararo was right on him. The collision was violent, particularly the second one. On lap two, the bike and bits of the bike were still on the ground, it wasn&rsquo;t very safe. It would almost have been better if we had a red flag, I didn&rsquo;t really agree it with the race continuing.&rdquo; Which of the last five tracks can prove decisive? &ldquo;Right now, any of them. Thailand will be very important, Malaysia too. We&rsquo;ve reached a great level and can be strong even at unfavourable tracks. It will be important not to throw anything away.&rdquo; Is your mental process of &ldquo;I&rsquo;m focusing on me and not others&rdquo; something you&rsquo;ve developed alone or with someone? &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve focused more on myself, if I crashed I knew it was my fault. I&rsquo;ve tried to exclude the various things that make me ride well and consider those that, when I think about them, make me fall. By excluding them, I&rsquo;ve taken a step forward.&rdquo; Traslated by Heather Watson       

"It was hell after Misano: I never asked for team orders. Bastianini won fair and square&rdquo; says the factory Ducati rider after finishing second to Enea

GP Aragón, Bagnaia: “I hope a lot of people have been silenced after this last weekend”

        Francesco Bagnaia&rsquo;s various tattoos include one of the layout of the Assen track that will host the ninth GP round as of tomorrow. The Italian has great memories of the track from his Moto2 days and admits: &ldquo;I really like the layout, it&rsquo;s one of my top three favourite tracks. I hope for, and want a great weekend&rdquo;. Hopes are high, with one eye on the weather  Looking back, the Ducati rider comments: &ldquo;I scored my first ever win here and had the best weekend of my career in Moto2, when I was first in every session and the race too&rdquo;. Pecco is coming from a fairly tough German round but is confident he can do well in Holland: &ldquo;I knew it would be tough at the Sachsenring and in the end we were actually quick, at a track where our bike struggles. Assen is different and I&rsquo;m really excited, but we have to hope the weather conditions are at least stable&rdquo;. As for his rivals, he adds: &ldquo;Yamaha and Suzuki will be very strong, but we can hold our own&rdquo;. &nbsp;The Austrian manufacturer is in the mix  One pairing that shouldn&rsquo;t be underestimated is that of Miguel Oliveira and KTM, coming off the back of three consecutive podiums: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s clear that KTM has taken a step forward and that Miguel is riding really well, he's very clean. I think they make a winning combination, one to watch&rdquo;. &nbsp;Valentino back to Ducati?  Following the Aramco Racing Team VR46 announcement, there is now the issue of whether or not Valentino Rossi will be one of its riders. Bagnaia comments: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t talk to colleagues about our future, I don&rsquo;t know what Vale wants to do. I thought he wanted to finish his career with Yamaha, I don&rsquo;t know what he&rsquo;ll decide to do. If he decides to race with Ducati for a year, it&rsquo;ll be because he feels it&rsquo;s the right thing&rdquo;. Translated by Heather Watson MotoGP: Garrett Gerloff to replace Franco Morbidelli at Assen       

The Italian Ducati rider is optimistic ahead of the Dutch GP, at a track where he scored his first career win and that he considers one of his favourites

MotoGP Assen, Bagnaia: “Yamaha and Suzuki strong, but we can hold our own”

        Francesco Bagnaia has still not had time to celebrate as, straight after yesterday&rsquo;s second-place finish, he was back in his leathers and helmet for today&rsquo;s test at Jerez. A day that came to a premature conclusion for the new championship leader, who completed his work ahead of schedule. &ldquo;Today I&rsquo;ve completed work that we&rsquo;d been wanting to do for a while, so that&rsquo;s good. I was able to do away with a few doubts I&rsquo;d had since Qatar, so it&rsquo;s all gone really well. I think I&rsquo;ve improved my pace too, which is definitely important&rdquo;. The Italian is also quick to heap praise on the Ducati, which, in his hands, now leads the way in the standings. &ldquo;I definitely think the Ducati is the best bike on the grid. I can ride it well and have real confidence in the front. All the bikes have their pros and cons, and with the Ducati perhaps the only weak point is a slight lack of traction, something we&rsquo;ve worked on today. Aside from that, I&rsquo;m pleased with the bike and think we still have room for improvement&rdquo;. Life as championship leader  The fact that Pecco is the new championship leader is definitely a recurring theme, but number 63 is trying his best not to think about it, for various reasons. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been leader for 25 hours and still need to get used to it (he laughs). I&rsquo;m not thinking about it actually, both because it&rsquo;s something big but also because we&rsquo;re only four races in. I&rsquo;m focusing on Le Mans right now, and how to be fast. Being on the factory team helps in many ways, particularly in remaining focused&rdquo;. In line with this thought, Pecco looks to the future, analysing the next tracks at which he and his rivals will compete, and remaining fairly sceptical about the idea of MotoGP heading outside of Europe this year, Qatar aside. &ldquo;The next three tracks, so Le Mans, Mugello and Barcelona, look good for us on paper, while the Sachsenring could be one where I struggle. The non-European tracks? I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;ll be heading to those this year, but if we do it&rsquo;s great for me, as they are tracks I like and that suit our bike&rdquo;. Translated by Heather Watson Moto3 GP Spain, scare for Oncu: &ldquo;It's a miracle I'm alive&rdquo;       

Pecco has already completed the test: "I&rsquo;m completed the work schedule and done away with doubts I'd had since Qatar. 25 hours later and I still can&rsquo;t believe I&rsquo;m first in the standings, but best not to think about it"

MotoGP Jerez test, Bagnaia: “I have the best bike and it can grow further”

Prior to the start of the 2021 season, it was clarified that both factory Ducati riders would be treated equally and that there was no number 1 and number 2 rider. But after the first three races, the two riders have performed in very different ways. And while Pecco Bagnaia places close to the top of the standings, thanks also to two podium finishes, we cannot say the same of Jack Miller, who has scored just 14 points to date.  Bagnaia has blossomed   Bagnaia&rsquo;s season start has been one to remember. In three races, he&rsquo;s achieved two podiums, finishing third in Qatar after having led for part of the race, and second at Portim&atilde;o. Two excellent results obtained in different ways but that highlight the physical and mental growth of the VR46 Riders Academy rider. Pecco appears to have it all under control aboard the Ducati. Valentino Rossi himself admitted: &ldquo;Many people haven&rsquo;t yet understood his potential, but he&rsquo;s really very talented&rdquo;. And Bagnaia has proved just that over these first three race weekends, particularly in Portugal where he managed the race well and climbed from eleventh to second, behind Quartararo. And we have the sense that this might be just the beginning in terms of his results this season.  Where&rsquo;s Jack?   Meanwhile, his team-mate&rsquo;s season is proving to be something of an uphill climb so far, with two ninth-place finishes at Losail followed by a minor surgery to help with the compartmental syndrome in his right forearm. This meant he wasn&rsquo;t in the best shape at Portim&atilde;o, but he was defending himself well before the crash. If we ignore the first race, which wasn&rsquo;t his fault, the other two leave something to be desired, particularly considering that he&rsquo;s often competitive on the Friday. If we look at how 2020 finished, we see a glaring contrast. So what&rsquo;s happened? Just a series of coincidences or is there more to it? We&rsquo;ll find out during the next races.  Translated by Heather Watson  MotoGP Portugal: Marc Marquez, the return of the injured warrior 

A second podium and second place in the championship for the Italian, while the Australian has shown to be inconsistent (and lies twelfth)

MotoGP, it&rsquo;s Bagnaia who leads for team Ducati

        The Ducati riders completed some very important and productive tests in Qatar. But rather than the testing itself, it appears that the work carried out in Borgo Panigale over the winter is really bearing fruit. It also looks as if implementing a generational changeover on the factory team was the right decision, with both Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia standing out during the first sessions of the 2021 season. Miller, the red arrow of Losail  We definitely can&rsquo;t ignore what went on in the factory Ducati garage during the Qatar tests. On Wednesday at Losail, the riders&rsquo; third test day, Jack Miller was able to smash the track record. His time? A 1:53.183. The previous record belonged to Marc Marquez, a 1:53.380 that the Australian beat hands down. But as well as lapping fast, Miller was also pleased with the work carried out inside the garage and said he was trying to modify his riding style to better exploit the tyres. Painstaking work that may well enable Jack to be one of the favourites this season. #43 has already completed three seasons aboard the Desmosedici and has very good knowledge of the bike. Now on the factory team, he can also count on a prototype that will have all the latest updates. Essentially, the bike looks like it might be a winner. Not only Jack  But there&rsquo;s more as, aside from Miller, the generational changeover also brings 24-year old Francesco Bagnaia to the factory team. He too has previous knowledge of the Desmosedici (riding for Ducati Pramac last season) and he&rsquo;s keen to improve and surprise people. Pecco finished fifth overall in testing, an excellent result that saw him close right behind three Yamaha riders (Vinales, Quartararo and Morbidelli). But the Pramac and Esponsorama teams can also count on strong riders, from Johann Zarco who clearly has something to prove and closed ninth at Losail, to the three rookies Jorge Martin, Enea Bastianini and Luca Marini. All are young yet experienced, having shone in Moto2 in 2020. And they got off to a good start at Losail, Jorge Martin finishing fourteenth, just ahead of Enea Bastianini, while Luca Marini set the 21st fastest time. Not bad for riders who&rsquo;d never tasted a MotoGP bike before. Basically, Ducati is a ticking time bomb ready to explode this year. Detonator in hand, it will need to decide whether to hang on for the title or implode ahead of time as has been the case, unfortunately, in recent seasons. Translated by Heather Watson MotoGP test: the technical updates spotted in Qatar       

Jack Miller was very fast in Qatar, but so were Bagnaia, Zarco and rookies Martin, Bastianini and Marini. Is the generational changeover already bearing fruit?

8 risultati per 'EN pecco bagnaia'