Spanish MotoGP winner Francesco Bagnaia has called for greater consistency around penalties imposed by race Stewards.
The Lenovo Ducati rider received a one-place penalty in Sunday’s race in Jerez after he made contact with Red Bull KTM’s Jack Miller when he overtook the Australian for second place.
Bagnaia had to slow and allow Miller past again, but the reigning world champion was able to battle back and eventually won a thrilling race from Brad Binder.
The Italian, who now leads the World Championship after four rounds, said: “I don’t want to speak about it too much. I just accept it, but in the future I want to see every time the same thing because we already watch many aggressive overtakes, much higher than what we did today, so I want to see every time the same penalty – if not, it’s not fair.”
Bagnaia had come in for criticism in some quarters after losing points following two unforced errors, with the factory Ducati rider crashing out of second place in Argentina and falling again as he led the main race at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas in the previous round.
However, he bounced back in the best way possible, securing a hard-fought victory on Sunday in a race he described as his best win for Ducati.
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“I think, looking at the weekend, in terms of everything that happened, it is the best one – close to the one in Silverstone – but better because the fight was so incredible,” Bagnaia said.
“I really enjoyed this race and this weekend because I think it can help us to grow together as a team.
“It wasn’t easy because KTM was incredible, also yesterday, so I just tried to be perfect and not use too much the rear tyre, and to win here is always special.”
Bagnaia pointed to the #1 on his Ducati after the race in parc ferme and said the gesture was ‘for my ego’.
“It was more for me, for my ego, because it’s always too easy to criticise from one side and you don’t know from inside what happened,” he said.
“So, I think this race is a race from the #1 and I’m very happy.
“After two zeros, I was trying to understand if this was possible again or not and then finishing first today, it’s great. Thanks to my team because they have done a really incredible job.
“The progress we had this weekend was the best ever we had. On Friday I was in trouble with the front feeling and yesterday it was already better, but today it was unbelievable and my team did another step.
“I watched Luca [Marini] yesterday and I saw something, we tried and everything was perfect today.”
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