Source: Cycle World
Francesco Bagnaia crossed the finish line at Catalunya 1.74 seconds ahead of Jorge Martín. (MotoGP/)Consistency and confidence did the job again for Francesco Bagnaia (factory Duc), who came back from crashing out of the Saturday sprint race at turn 5. He said, “I know when I make a mistake that I can be disappointed, nervous, angry, but I know perfectly well my potential.”He has said over and again that he is confident of his team’s ability to give him a bike setup that can win on Sunday.In second and 1.74 seconds back, was current point leader Jorge Martín (Pramac Ducati). Of the early push-and-shove (he led the middle 14 laps) he said, “…with Pedro [Acosta] behind [me] I pushed a bit too much, because I wanted to stay on the lead and he was really close, so I took a bit the rear tire on the front (tried to make up for the fading front tire by overusing the rear) and when Pecco caught me I had nothing else to fight with.“I was struggling with the front at that point. And when he overtook me I tried, you know—last map—but maybe I was sprinting too much. I think this map was just for the last two laps and I destroyed the rear tire, and from that point I had no front, no rear.”He was referring to one of the alternative engine-control maps provided to riders, each giving specialized characteristics to deal with expected situations.Second place was solid (Marc Márquez was back nearly 10 seconds) so Martín accepted it. He spoke of in future trying “to be faster using less tire because this is the key…”All riders know Barcelona has little grip, yet produces surprising tire degradation. Because of this there were many crashes, especially at turn 5. Repaving cannot overcome the flow of extremely fine Saharan dust, carried north across the Mediterranean by the famous sirocco winds. Fine dust interferes with the molecular adhesion aspect of tire grip.The game is to understand how to still be “in the podium window” in the final laps with enough tire to either fend off a challenge from behind or attack anyone ahead. Bagnaia did the best job of that.Martín’s summation was “I can see Pecco is stronger in braking, Marc is stronger in entry, and I am faster on the exit, so…you are trying to take small details from everyone.” Márquez would make the identical summation in another conversation.Related: Martín Wins 2024 French Grand PrixMartín finished second on Sunday. (Prima Pramac Racing/)Bagnaia’s situation allowed him choice: “On Jorge I was recovering so much in all the corner entries, so there were more places to try to overtake. But I saw a chance at turn 5. I knew that by pushing in that corner I would also get what had happened yesterday out of my head. So I [chose] it on purpose.”Márquez started from 14th. On Friday he observed, “…I’m struggling a bit on corner entry—it’s where still I don’t feel 100 percent comfortable. [Normally] one of my strong points is the brake point, and here it’s one of my weak points. So we need to understand well the bike balance.”Not only is Márquez having to master what the others have learned in his absence, but he is also adapting himself to a very different motorcycle while its qualities are pushed toward his long-established style. He is returning to university after a long sabbatical. So far, his exams are going well.Márquez studies the others and he studies the voluminous Ducati data available to him. He spoke of the styles of sprint winner Aleix Espargaró (factory Aprilia) and Acosta (KTM/GasGas).“Aleix is one extreme, Pedro another, and I’m a bit in the middle,” Márquez said. He appreciated the lessons by trying some of the things he was seeing: “I saw too many risks so I went again with my style.”At one point he was asked if he is now a better rider than he was in 2013: “I wouldn’t say better. I just have more experience. I’m not better than 2013—back then I had that push in the qualifying lap that has now become one of my weaknesses.”When asked if 2024 has developed into a three-way fight, he replied, “It’s a world championship of two, with a third one hoping to latch on.”Márquez remarked that at Honda he always knew how to choose the tires. But now on a Ducati, it’s a big unknown requiring close attention. “I say to my team, put me on the medium from the warmup to make the sighting lap. If I don’t have a good feeling, I will put on the soft. On that sighting lap the feeling was not good and then I put on the soft.” (He was one of four, including Acosta, who ran the soft.)His thinking had changed from the sprint, after which he’d said, “…tomorrow we start 14th, but it will be with the medium…”Marc Márquez finished third and says he is hoping to “latch on” to Martín and Bagnaia in the title fight. (MotoGP/)Bagnaia’s process of choice: “…yesterday (Saturday) I was happy with the soft; I was able to manage it well (he led the sprint until crashing on the last lap).“But today there were six degrees more on the asphalt and already in the sprint I’d had some problems with overheating, and many riders had crashed. I think the medium was the right choice.”He also spoke of using other Ducati riders’ data: “In Jerez I looked a lot at Marc’s data in the left turns. In turn 7 he was gaining two-tenths every lap, so I tried to understand how he did it. In Sunday’s race I tried to imitate his style. You can’t replicate perfectly but it’s normal to take the positive aspects of your opponents.“I also do that with Jorge; he is very good in corner exit. He can be very tight at the apex and then get the bike up early, before me.”Bagnaia confidently played the long game. “As soon as Jorge and Acosta got past me (he was third on laps 6 through 10) I tried to stay with them, but I thought their pace was a bit too quick, especially with regard to the tire wear on the full race distance. Then I saw that their pace came back to a rhythm that was similar to mine.“Once I overtook Jorge (on lap 19 of 24) I noticed I had already pulled a four-tenth second margin on him in one lap, so the only thing I had to do was to make it to the finish line.”No panic at being pushed back to third by Martín and Acosta—he knew the others were eating rubber faster than he was. The race would come back to him. And it did.Baganaia crashed in the Tissot Sprint. (MotoGP/)People were eager for Espargaró to win this one. He’d headed the Aprilia 1-2 last year, the exceptional corner speed of his Aprilia being an essential element. Now that he’s announced his retirement at the end of this season, wouldn’t a repeat be perfection?He reviewed the weekend: “…these past few days were wonderful: taking pole position, the sprint race, and setting the track record.”Nope, fourth was all that was possible. Remember in France two weeks ago, Aleix saying he neither understands nor likes his clutch? “From pole to sixth” is how he put it.He noted that Ducati “chose this track for testing and they improved a lot.” Ducati’s Luigi Dall’Igna said, “After last year’s results we chose…this circuit as our test track with [rider] Michele Pirro, and I believe this helped us find some valid solutions to improve our bike setup.”Espargaró exclaimed, “They beat my time from last year by 20 seconds, which is crazy!”Aleix Espargaró announced his retirement prior to winning the Tissot Sprint and taking fourth on Sunday. (Aprilia/)Get used to it. Technology enables this. No more dismal years of unchanging MV fours winning by six minutes because they made 10–15 hp more than their 1950s Norton and Matchless opponents. This is the new face of European racebike development, which the Japanese teams of Honda and Yamaha somehow decided to ignore.What about the rest? Good riders, competitive bikes, occasionally able to rise from relative obscurity into the news, but lacking the pace, experience, and consistency of the men, bikes, and teams up front.Mugello next weekend.
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Francesco Bagnaia crossed the finish line at Catalunya 1.74 seconds ahead of Jorge Martín. (MotoGP/)
Consistency and confidence did the job again for Francesco Bagnaia (factory Duc), who came back from crashing out of the Saturday sprint race at turn 5. He said, “I know when I make a mistake that I can be disappointed, nervous, angry, but I know perfectly well my potential.”
He has said over and again that he is confident of his team’s ability to give him a bike setup that can win on Sunday.
In second and 1.74 seconds back, was current point leader Jorge Martín (Pramac Ducati). Of the early push-and-shove (he led the middle 14 laps) he said, “…with Pedro [Acosta] behind [me] I pushed a bit too much, because I wanted to stay on the lead and he was really close, so I took a bit the rear tire on the front (tried to make up for the fading front tire by overusing the rear) and when Pecco caught me I had nothing else to fight with.
“I was struggling with the front at that point. And when he overtook me I tried, you know—last map—but maybe I was sprinting too much. I think this map was just for the last two laps and I destroyed the rear tire, and from that point I had no front, no rear.”
He was referring to one of the alternative engine-control maps provided to riders, each giving specialized characteristics to deal with expected situations.
Second place was solid (Marc Márquez was back nearly 10 seconds) so Martín accepted it. He spoke of in future trying “to be faster using less tire because this is the key…”
All riders know Barcelona has little grip, yet produces surprising tire degradation. Because of this there were many crashes, especially at turn 5. Repaving cannot overcome the flow of extremely fine Saharan dust, carried north across the Mediterranean by the famous sirocco winds. Fine dust interferes with the molecular adhesion aspect of tire grip.
The game is to understand how to still be “in the podium window” in the final laps with enough tire to either fend off a challenge from behind or attack anyone ahead. Bagnaia did the best job of that.
Martín’s summation was “I can see Pecco is stronger in braking, Marc is stronger in entry, and I am faster on the exit, so…you are trying to take small details from everyone.” Márquez would make the identical summation in another conversation.
Related: Martín Wins 2024 French Grand Prix
Martín finished second on Sunday. (Prima Pramac Racing/)
Bagnaia’s situation allowed him choice: “On Jorge I was recovering so much in all the corner entries, so there were more places to try to overtake. But I saw a chance at turn 5. I knew that by pushing in that corner I would also get what had happened yesterday out of my head. So I [chose] it on purpose.”
Márquez started from 14th. On Friday he observed, “…I’m struggling a bit on corner entry—it’s where still I don’t feel 100 percent comfortable. [Normally] one of my strong points is the brake point, and here it’s one of my weak points. So we need to understand well the bike balance.”
Not only is Márquez having to master what the others have learned in his absence, but he is also adapting himself to a very different motorcycle while its qualities are pushed toward his long-established style. He is returning to university after a long sabbatical. So far, his exams are going well.
Márquez studies the others and he studies the voluminous Ducati data available to him. He spoke of the styles of sprint winner Aleix Espargaró (factory Aprilia) and Acosta (KTM/GasGas).
“Aleix is one extreme, Pedro another, and I’m a bit in the middle,” Márquez said. He appreciated the lessons by trying some of the things he was seeing: “I saw too many risks so I went again with my style.”
At one point he was asked if he is now a better rider than he was in 2013: “I wouldn’t say better. I just have more experience. I’m not better than 2013—back then I had that push in the qualifying lap that has now become one of my weaknesses.”
When asked if 2024 has developed into a three-way fight, he replied, “It’s a world championship of two, with a third one hoping to latch on.”
Márquez remarked that at Honda he always knew how to choose the tires. But now on a Ducati, it’s a big unknown requiring close attention. “I say to my team, put me on the medium from the warmup to make the sighting lap. If I don’t have a good feeling, I will put on the soft. On that sighting lap the feeling was not good and then I put on the soft.” (He was one of four, including Acosta, who ran the soft.)
His thinking had changed from the sprint, after which he’d said, “…tomorrow we start 14th, but it will be with the medium…”
Marc Márquez finished third and says he is hoping to “latch on” to Martín and Bagnaia in the title fight. (MotoGP/)
Bagnaia’s process of choice: “…yesterday (Saturday) I was happy with the soft; I was able to manage it well (he led the sprint until crashing on the last lap).
“But today there were six degrees more on the asphalt and already in the sprint I’d had some problems with overheating, and many riders had crashed. I think the medium was the right choice.”
He also spoke of using other Ducati riders’ data: “In Jerez I looked a lot at Marc’s data in the left turns. In turn 7 he was gaining two-tenths every lap, so I tried to understand how he did it. In Sunday’s race I tried to imitate his style. You can’t replicate perfectly but it’s normal to take the positive aspects of your opponents.
“I also do that with Jorge; he is very good in corner exit. He can be very tight at the apex and then get the bike up early, before me.”
Bagnaia confidently played the long game. “As soon as Jorge and Acosta got past me (he was third on laps 6 through 10) I tried to stay with them, but I thought their pace was a bit too quick, especially with regard to the tire wear on the full race distance. Then I saw that their pace came back to a rhythm that was similar to mine.
“Once I overtook Jorge (on lap 19 of 24) I noticed I had already pulled a four-tenth second margin on him in one lap, so the only thing I had to do was to make it to the finish line.”
No panic at being pushed back to third by Martín and Acosta—he knew the others were eating rubber faster than he was. The race would come back to him. And it did.
Baganaia crashed in the Tissot Sprint. (MotoGP/)
People were eager for Espargaró to win this one. He’d headed the Aprilia 1-2 last year, the exceptional corner speed of his Aprilia being an essential element. Now that he’s announced his retirement at the end of this season, wouldn’t a repeat be perfection?
He reviewed the weekend: “…these past few days were wonderful: taking pole position, the sprint race, and setting the track record.”
Nope, fourth was all that was possible. Remember in France two weeks ago, Aleix saying he neither understands nor likes his clutch? “From pole to sixth” is how he put it.
He noted that Ducati “chose this track for testing and they improved a lot.” Ducati’s Luigi Dall’Igna said, “After last year’s results we chose…this circuit as our test track with [rider] Michele Pirro, and I believe this helped us find some valid solutions to improve our bike setup.”
Espargaró exclaimed, “They beat my time from last year by 20 seconds, which is crazy!”
Aleix Espargaró announced his retirement prior to winning the Tissot Sprint and taking fourth on Sunday. (Aprilia/)
Get used to it. Technology enables this. No more dismal years of unchanging MV fours winning by six minutes because they made 10–15 hp more than their 1950s Norton and Matchless opponents. This is the new face of European racebike development, which the Japanese teams of Honda and Yamaha somehow decided to ignore.
What about the rest? Good riders, competitive bikes, occasionally able to rise from relative obscurity into the news, but lacking the pace, experience, and consistency of the men, bikes, and teams up front.
Mugello next weekend.
