MotoGP, Bagnaia convinced he could fight for the top slot with the GP22 if he were to race today

Relaxed, calm, as if he had everything perfectly under control. Pecco Bagnaia likes to carefully sort everything before starting to push hard and with the GP22 he managed it quicker than he expected. It is not the sixth quickest time, just over a tenth from Bastianini, that put him in a good mood, but the awareness that the best is yet to come.

“Today we took an incredible step forward – he declared – Yesterday morning went well, in the afternoon a little better, but today the progress was enormous. I didn’t do anything special in the flying lap and now I have my best time at Sepang. But the most important thing is the pace and if we had to race today, I could fight for the top positions. We are only on the second day with the new Ducati and its level is already similar to the old one “.

What does this tell you?

“That we have an incredible margin. If we continue like this at Mandalika, we will be able to reach a good level and be at the top in Qatar. Not to mention that at home they are continuing to work and in the tests in Indonesia we will have something new”.

What has changed from the GP21?

“I was a bit scared that by making changes to the bike it would lose its strong points, such as braking and corner entry, but we are already at those levels. Today we worked on acceleration, because when you change the engine, you have to adapt the electronics. We have taken the right direction”.

You look amazing…

“We have improved more than I expected, it is not easy to take off one second of pace with used tyres. We tried to understand what wasn’t working, with a small change we took a huge step forward ”.

The other Ducati riders said it is necessary to work a lot on the first part of the acceleration.

“That’s what I did today, because the GP21 was very smooth in that area. On the second day I am already at those levels”.

Where is the GP22 better?

“In nothing in particular, but it is in general. The Desmosedici 2021 had reached its maximum level, with this you feel that there is more potential. You have the feeling that you can improve”.

You seem very confident…

“When you have a team like mine behind you, you are”.

Were you able to get an idea of ​​​​the level of the other bikes?

“These days every time I found a rider in front of me I slowed down because I just wanted to focus on myself. I saw that Marquez, Rins, Nakagami were trying to follow me, I don’t know if they did. I was thinking of myself”.