Bagnaia: “I’m tired of it…”, Marquez claims “I wasn’t looking for Pecco”

Francesco Bagnaia was in no mood to discuss the incident in qualifying with Marc Marquez after winning his third MotoGP sprint of the year.
Francesco Bagnaia, Marc Marquez, Alex Marquez MotoGP Mugello
Francesco Bagnaia, Marc Marquez, Alex Marquez MotoGP Mugello

Bagnaia came across Marquez when the Repsol Honda rider was exiting pit lane, and although the six-time MotoGP champion seemed to be well clear of the Italian, Bagnaia thought he was impeded.

A furious Bagnaia then caught up to Marquez as he showed his frustration by waving his hands and pointing to his head, presumably letting Marquez know that he thought the Spaniard was not being smart.

But what it ultimately did was put Bagnaia under pressure as Marquez then used the reigning world champion as a tow in order to qualify second.

 

But that didn’t stop Bagnaia as he set a new lap record before winning the sprint.

Discussing the incident, Bagnaia said: "I don’t want to enter into this discussion because everytime I have to speak about what I think. I'm tired of it and don’t want to answer."

Qualifying at Mugello was not the first time that Bagnaia was frustrated with Marquez this season, as the pair also had an argument in Portimao when Marquez attempted to get a tow from the Ducati rider, which he did en route to claiming pole. 

But Marquez said that he was not looking to do that during today’s qualifying: "Honestly speaking, this time I wasn’t looking for Pecco because when he stopped, I was just going out from the box and I was in turn one," said Marquez when speaking to MotoGP.com in parc ferme. 

"He was coming on a hot lap but he decided to stop by my side and to speak with me. But in that moment I said ‘okay, thanks!’. 

"Like this we have the chance to have the slipstream. I was sure that I was going out of the box with a new tyre and it was still not in the right temperature so if he kept pushing that lap I wouldn’t have been able to follow him."

While Bagnaia took a brilliant win, rain early on spiced up the race as Jorge Martin came through to take the lead.

However, Bagnaia soon responded after feeling as though he was being too cautious. 

Bagnaia added: "I’m sure that when I re-watch the race I will see that I started to panic because I was feeling that it was wet. 

"Jorge passed me and then I saw someone on the outside, so maybe I was a bit too slow. 

"Then I just decided to go with Jorge and when arriving in sector four everything was dry, sector one too. But the last part of sector two and the start of sector three was wet. It was quite scary."

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