Francesco Bagnaia explains “disaster” race end as "pain" set in

Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia says the final laps of his MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix were “a disaster” because he lost concentration and began to feel more pain from his injuries.

The reigning world champion suffered minor shoulder and back injuries in a crash with Alex Marquez at the Aragon GP, which forced him to race with painkillers at Misano.

Bagnaia qualified on pole, finished second in the sprint and led the early stages of the grand prix before eventually finishing runner-up to Marc Marquez in the tricky conditions.

Having largely kept Marquez at arm’s length, in the final laps Bagnaia dropped right off to end up 3.1s behind at the chequered flag.

He later explained that, at the point he elected to give up fighting for the win, he began thinking too much about the pain from his injuries.

“I wanted to try to win the race. Without the rain I had a good probability to win, because my pace was fantastic and Jorge [Martin] behind [would have] surely found it difficult to overtake behind me like it was for me [in the sprint],” Bagnaia said.

“But as soon as it started to rain I saw him enter the box and in my mind everything changed.

“I said ‘ok, I don’t have to crash because he will take zero points’. Then Marc arrived because he was the bravest in terms of pushing in the rain.

“As soon as he overtook me I tried to overtake him back but I didn’t have the chance.

“When I decided to finish second, four, five laps to go, I lost the concentration to be super-fast on track and I started to think more on the pain.

“It was a disaster because it was like in one moment all of the painkiller effect finished. It was a disaster.”

Having come into Sunday’s grand prix 26 points behind Martin, the Spaniard’s strategic error means Bagnaia is now only seven adrift in the standings.

Bagnaia doesn’t consider this result - given his Aragon struggles - to be like a victory, but says it does “taste good”. 

“After what happened last week, yes, considering on Monday I wasn’t able to do that much,” he replied when asked if he would have signed for this championship result pre-weekend.

“My pain was hurting a lot and was not easy. But we worked a lot, like always, with my crew and I credit my physio, who did a fantastic job again.

“My trainer Carlo the same. So, I’m very proud of what we did. It was not critical like last year but I think the arms and the shoulders are more tricky when you feel pain there than the legs.

“With the legs, you can manage it using the arms more. But you can’t use your legs to be fast like you use your arms. So, it was a bit more difficult riding.

“I was able to ride like I wanted, but it hurt in the last part of the race. It doesn’t taste like a victory, because it’s not a victory, but it tastes good.

“Yesterday I was angry because I had the chance to win and I didn’t take it. Today I did the maximum and I didn’t win. So, more than that was difficult.”

Unwell Bastianini fights back for podium

Bagnaia’s Ducati team-mate Enea Bastianini came through from eighth on the grid to finish third, having at one stage threatened the leaders with his pace.

Bastianini was one of several riders struck down by illness at Misano and started the grand prix under the weather.

Electing to run the soft rear tyre while the leaders went with the medium, Bastianini had good early pace but admits he “struggled” late on when the rubber faded.

“I’m happy for the podium because this morning I wasn’t feeling well,” he began.

“I started without thinking about this. The race was a bit complicated because after a few laps, it started to rain a bit and I tried to close the gap to Pecco because he had taken some distance to me.

“At the end, I was really close. But after the group from behind arrived during that situation and everything was complicated to win, also because I was with the soft on the rear. The start was good, but at the end I struggled a bit.”