MotoGP Silverstone: Bagnaia ‘already faster than last year’
| Christina Bulpett | MotoGP
Ducati Lenovo’s Pecco Bagnaia ended day one in Silverstone 11th in the combined times after a tricky Friday in the UK.
Having suffered a fast crash in the morning session, the Italian recovered to sit second in the standings by the end of FP1. Having already relied heavily on his soft tyre allocation, however, the afternoon was more of a struggle as he fought to find the correct feeling with the medium Pirelli available for the British Grand Prix weekend.
His eventual 1’59.385 fastest effort sat just half a second faster than his morning’s best, leaving him just adrift of the all-important top ten heading into Saturday’s FP3 fight but confident of the potential in hand.
“This morning like always I started with soft front tyre,” Bagnaia explained on Friday afternoon. “And my feeling with it was already at my maximum because I was feeling great. Fast corners were okay, braking were okay, the grip was high but then I crashed just because I touched the white line. So I had to change the front tyre, so I used two, but the problem was that this afternoon, I was without soft because one was too used and the first one of the crash, that was just with four laps was cut in the crash so they remove it.
“I was without the soft to use so I had to use the medium front tyre and my feeling with it wasn’t the best so for tomorrow we already know that with the ‘p’ will be better but let’s see.
“My feeling is not bad like last year. I’m already so much faster but still we have something to do. Tomorrow morning could be important, will be important the FP4 but my feeling is okay.”
One of the main topics of the weekend remains the long lap penalties and the inconsistency both of who and when the sanction is handed down, but also of the difference in the loop at different tracks. Silverstone’s high-speed layout looking to provide one of the shortest penalties on the calendar. While the Italian is in agreement that consistency needs to be addressed he’s magnanimous in this weekend’s situation.
“I think, like all we say, that was incorrect to give the penalty to Fabio [Quartararo], so it’s better for him that is shorter!” Bagnaia admitted on the subject before elaborating.
“For sure, in Assen you lose four seconds, here maybe you lose one. But it depends from the circuit because also in Sachsenring you don’t lose so much time.
“There are tracks where the run off areas are big and like in this track, no. So it’s difficult to say something about a long lap, maybe we will speak about it after in the safety commission. But finally, like I said, for me in this moment, I know that it’s impossible to change it, so it’s okay.”
