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Francesco Bagnaia hailed his victory in the Austrian Grand Prix as one of his best wins of the season as the Lenovo Ducati rider stretched his title lead to 62 points.
As he did in the Sprint race, Bagnaia led off the line from pole and stayed ahead on every lap to secure his fifth GP victory of the season.
The Italian had to work hard in the early stages to keep KTM’s Brad Binder at bay, but Bagnaia began to turn the screw and eventually broke the South African, pulling clear and winning in the end by five seconds.
“We did such an incredible job,” said Bagnaia.
“We improved a lot from Friday where I had a good feeling but was missing something.
“Yesterday we improved and today in the race it was really hot, and I already knew that the rear tyre could be a mess.
“The front tyre was at the start but right now we are understanding how to improve it a bit more.
“It is one of the best wins this season in terms of speed and consistency.”
Binder’s challenge wilted when he began to experience issues with the pressure in his front tyre – a problem that also affected Bagnaia, who said he was ‘over the limit’ as he pushed hard at the beginning of the race to hold off Binder.
New tyre pressure regulations require riders and teams to adhere to a minimum front tyre pressure of 1.9bar (27.6psi) and 1.7 bar (24.7psi) on the rear.
“I didn’t have the chance to be in a group but it was already on the limit,” said the reigning world champion.
“I was over the limit by far. We had more margin for this race which was helpful for sure, but I was alone and my pressure was still over two.
“It became more difficult to ride over 1.9, so in any case it was not easy, but we have to understand it, improve and we have to just get used to it.”
Bagnaia has now built a healthy cushion in the standings over Jorge Martin, who finished seventh after serving a Long Lap penalty for triggering a multi-rider pile-up in the Sprint race.
Round 11 of the championship takes place at Catalunya in Barcelona from September 1-3.
