05/12/2022 |
Christina Bulpett |
MotoGP
Picture: GeeBee Images
Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia is hoping to reignite his MotoGP season at Le Mans after claiming his first win of the year last time out.
The Lenovo rider stormed to victory with a dominant performance over the rest of the field and despite a late-race recovery from reigning champion Fabio Quartararo. With the 2021 runner-up now hoping to continue the momentum with a similar challenge at a track Ducati have celebrated back-to-back success in recent years.
“Could be good to have the same trend of last year after first race but is different, so let’s see this weekend,” the Italian admitted on his difficult start to the season.
“My mindset was to understand why I was struggling like this,” he continued on his 2022 challenges. “Was true that the bike was changing a bit but when we are speaking about tenths, a bit already did a big difference.
“The first test of the season have started in a track where we weren’t last year, so the situation was quite strange there. I was feeling good but was still missing something. In Qatar we have seen the true situation with the bike, in a track where we were last year and I started to struggle a lot to stop the bike and to do what I was doing the year before so we never stopped working.
“We have tried to understand how to manage the bike with the new things and finally, in Argentina, we did the first step in front with my feeling. Austin too – then in the race I was not competitive but in a difficult situation I did two top five positions that in a long championship like this, when you are in trouble or when you are not fast, top five is quite okay.
“In Portimao the result was not good for sure but the feeling was coming again and in Jerez we did the final step we were missing with my bike. It’s true that I had to change a bit the riding style but in any case, finally, I found again the feeling and working like we did in Jerez, session by session, means that I also had more feeling than there last year. Because compare 2021 I was more competitive in Jerez this year.”
Weather has consistently played a deciding factor in the French GP, with rain expected, at least on race day, at the Bugatti Circuit once again this weekend. Bagnaia remains confident despite an eclectic run of form in changeable conditions.
“Last year I wasn’t competitive on dry so let’s see,” the 25-year-old admitted. “Looks like all the weekend will be dry apart two o’clock on Sunday that start to rain for sure! But let’s see. Let’s see.
“Is a track that I like, is a track where I did my first podium and I love this place but let’s see this weekend. I am sure that Yamaha is always really competitive in here. John [Zarco] was very competitive last year, so Jack [Miller] is always competitive in this track. So let’s see what will happen.
“Indonesia was a strange situation for me,” he said of his challenging weekend at Mandalika. “Normally on wet we are strong and fast but there, no. I was very slow, without feeling with the bike and was a bit strange.
“But in Portimao on wet we were competitive and last year [at Le Mans] I finished fourth with two long laps and I was so behind.
“But in any case every year is different. We have to better understand everything but it’s difficult to predict now. It’s more easy to predict the weekend after the two first sessions of the weekend.”