Francesco Bagnaia Battles Bumps and Red Flags to Secure Crucial Q2 Spot at Phillip Island

Francesco Bagnaia acknowledged that it wasn't the best beginning, but he remained confident about making it to Q2. He described the situation as somewhat hurried at the time.

As the sole practice session on Friday at Phillip Island neared its halfway point, dark clouds began to form above. Meanwhile, current MotoGP titleholder Francesco Bagnaia had not yet recorded a lap time.

If it had started raining, the Ducati rider would have found themselves participating in Saturday's Qualifying 1 session.

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Luckily for the Italian rider, he switched to his backup bike after experiencing discomfort with his initial one, only to be stopped by red flags because a goose had wandered onto the track. He was relieved to know that his title contender, Jorge Martin, faced a similar situation after an early crash.

As the rain held off, Bagnaia managed to secure a position within the top ten, finishing in fifth place. He was directly behind the Pramac rider on the time charts, only 0.243 seconds away from the leading time.

Bagnaia expressed his confidence to MotoGP.com about making it to Q2, despite the delayed lap timing. He admitted, "The session didn't begin as planned. I wasn't comfortable on the first bike, so I had to pause and switch to the second bike, which unfortunately wasn't prepared."

In that moment, things felt a bit hurried. However, once I got on the other bike, I quickly grasped the necessary adjustments needed for the setup and collaborated effectively with the team.

"At last, I managed to maintain an excellent speed using the worn rear soft tire, and the time attack proceeded successfully."

"Regrettably, we couldn't showcase our complete potential because of the yellow flags. I believe we had the capability to secure either first or second place, but ending up in 5th position is satisfactory for today."

"Our goal was to finish in the top 10, and we achieved it. I'm really pleased about that, but I'm aiming to improve further tomorrow. We understand what needs to be done and I believe we have the capability to accomplish it."

With only four races remaining and trailing Martin by a mere ten points, Bagnaia shared the sentiments of fellow racers, characterizing the freshly laid surface at Phillip Island as having good traction yet being uneven.

He mentioned that the grip is excellent and feels great, but noted it's unusual to have so many bumps on the newly laid asphalt.

"However, selecting a tire at this moment is quite challenging. I noticed that only Alex Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi tested the new medium rear tire, and they showed impressive speed, indicating it might be a promising option."

"I need to give it a shot tomorrow morning to figure out what steps to take."

Marc and Alex Marquez achieved the fastest lap times on their Gresini GP23 bikes, but Bagnaia believes no rider currently stands out as the favorite.

"At the moment, I believe we're all in close proximity, and keeping up with a quicker rider using the slipstream is quite manageable. Therefore, I anticipate it will be challenging for anyone to create a significant lead in the Sprint, but we’ll find out tomorrow."

"Each individual's contribution to the performance is evenly matched."

Enea Bastianini, who is competing with Marc Marquez for the third spot in the championship standings and is presently leading by two points, ended up in 16th place. As a result, he will participate in Qualifying 1.

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