Bagnaia Reflects on Aragon Crash Impact as Title Challenge Wanes After Australian GP

Pecco Bagnaia attributes his championship shortfall to a controversial collision with Alex Marquez.

The aftermath of their Aragon clash looms over Bagnaia following the Australian Grand Prix.

Francesco Bagnaia has expressed that the crash involving Alex Marquez at Aragon is having a significant impact on his chances for the MotoGP championship, especially after falling behind Jorge Martin by 10 points at the Australian Grand Prix.

The current two-time world champion's back-to-back wins in Japan have narrowed Martin's lead in the rankings to just 10 points.

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Following two challenging races at Phillip Island, where Bagnaia struggled to match the pace of Martin or Marc Marquez, the Italian rider's gap in the championship standings has increased to 20 points.

After securing a distant third place at the Australian Grand Prix, Bagnaia reflects on the incident with Alex Marquez at Aragon in September, emphasizing how that crash, which potentially cost him 16 points, is still affecting his championship aspirations.

"Bagnaia mentioned that his championship scenario reminds him of the situation in Indonesia."

"Our progress is marked by a cycle of regaining and then losing ground. Overall, our performance remains quite steady."

"Unfortunately, the collision with Alex Marquez that caused my crash is currently having the biggest impact on the championship standings."

"However, our attention must shift to the upcoming races, carrying with us a strong sense of confidence, especially since those tracks are where I excel in speed."

Bagnaia faced difficulties steering his Ducati during the sprint, but managed to enhance the set-up before the grand prix. However, he acknowledged that he still needed to aggressively push the front when entering turns.

"He detailed that he had to exert significant pressure on the front to maneuver the motorcycle."

"I was exerting extra effort because my bike tended to drift wider, and it was crucial to remain near the curb, similar to what Jorge and Marc were doing."

"I must admit that Marc was slightly ahead, so it's crucial for us to figure out why and identify the specific areas where we made a difference."

"Fortunately, grasping the concept prior to the race was crucial; otherwise, I would have ended up not placing in the top three."

Bagnaia momentarily took the lead in the grand prix after Martin encountered an error at the first turn on the 12th lap, enabling Bagnaia to execute a pass at the third turn.

However, Martin quickly retaliated, and subsequently, Bagnaia fell to third place, trailing behind Marquez. Eventually, the Italian ended up 9.1 seconds behind his competitor in the championship race.

"I've been feeling significantly better since this morning; we made adjustments to the setup, and it brought me joy," he expressed.

"However, during the race, once I wore out the front tire, it became difficult for me to keep up with the others."

Therefore, I had to reduce my speed significantly since the gap between myself and the competitors trailing me was substantial. The distance to those following me widened to 8.1 seconds, 8.2 seconds, but then I was forced to decelerate drastically to avoid the risk of crashing just like they did.

"Indeed, it was challenging to outperform them. Their performance exceeded ours the previous day. On Friday, it seemed we were neck and neck, but by the next day, our configuration was off, and they managed to advance further while we fell behind."

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