Valentino Rossi hails Pecco Bagnaia as “aggressive not dirty”

Valentino Rossi analysed Pecco Bagnaia, who enjoyed a perfect weekend at the Austrian MotoGP.

The reigning MotoGP champion, and VR46 Academy graduate, won the Saturday sprint race and the Sunday grand prix to emerge with a five-point lead over Jorge Martin.

Martin - who was punished with a long lap penalty on Saturday - finished second twice.

“He comes from an incredible moment, this weekend he immediately started strong, he went well from the first practice,” Rossi analysed Bagnaia to Sky Italia after the sprint.

“Martin is there, but these weekends [Bagnaia] manages to have something more.

“He's very quiet, drives well and is incredibly fast. He has improved a lot on all points and at the moment he doesn't have a weak point.

“He does the lap, he always starts well at the start and this is a very important thing, something that champions like Verstappen for example do.

“It's not easy to always start well, every now and then someone gets it wrong and instead he's always there. And he’s incredibly fast."

Bagnaia 'aggressive not dirty'

Rossi insists that two-time champion Bagnaia thrives in difficulty.

"Yes, lately under pressure he's giving his all, he manages to bring out that extra bit,” he said.

“In my opinion, Bagnaia's strength is this: he's aggressive but he's not dirty, he's clean but he's not sweet.

“He's the right mix of wickedness, the aggressiveness, riding the Ducati in oversteer when braking but also the mileage, he don't make mistakes. Now he’s hard to beat.”

Rossi warned factory Ducati rider Bagnaia that Pramac’s Martin could contest the championship until the final day, as he did last year.

"There is a lot of possibility that they will reach the end,” Rossi said.

“It depends on the dynamics. Now we are in the Bagnaia dynamic which has recovered a lot of points from them in the last races, because let's not forget that he had maybe 40, but he was in the lead and now he's there.

“Now we have to see every weekend, because Martin is a very fast rider, he doesn't make many mistakes, he has the fastest lap too. He starts well, these are the important things in MotoGP now and it will be a good fight until the end."

Is it better to chase or be chased?

"In my opinion, Pecco was in a good condition before the break because he had passed him,” Rossi said.

“But Martin, even though he won't be in Ducati next year, will have to change teams and was disappointed because he wanted the red one.

“When he returned from holidays he was there straight away and managed to recover points from him.

“Now I see it as equal. Even from the outside, the two of them are the ones who are going a little better now, you can see it by eye."