Francesco Bagnaia said he was wary of being passed by Maverick Viñales at the final corner on the last lap in the Sprint race at Catalunya in a repeat of Valentino Rossi’s famous overtake on Jorge Lorenzo in 2009.
Italian Rossi snatched victory from Lorenzo with a sensational last-gasp pass 14 years ago to snatch a legendary MotoGP win.
Yet, while factory Ducati rider Bagnaia and Aprilia’s Viñales were not fighting for the victory after Aleix Espargaro pulled away at the front, the reigning world champion still feared the prospect of being denied the runner-up spot on a tense last lap in Barcelona.
“It was fun, honestly I was focused on trying to be perfect on every braking, trying to not give him any chance to put his bike in front of me,” Bagnaia said.
“I was a bit scared to see something like Barcelona 2009, Vale and Lorenzo, so I was just trying to close all the lines and stop the bike a bit more.”
Bagnaia extended his lead in the title race to 66 points over Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin, who finished fifth, but while he had no answer to Espargaro in the 12-lap shootout, he is quietly optimistic he can mount a stiffer challenge in Sunday’s main Grand Prix.
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“I’m satisfied because more than this was impossible today,” Bagnaia said.
“At the start I tried to open the gap a bit to have more margin with the guys behind, knowing perfectly that Aleix was there.
“I was trying to brake as late as possible but I was missing maybe a bit too much on the first part of acceleration on traction, so maybe I pushed too much in the first two or three laps but I don’t think it was just that.
“I think the strategy was correct. I tried to follow Aleix but it was impossible today, so let’s see tomorrow. My team is already working on what we have seen in the Sprint race today and hopefully we can close or bridge this gap to enjoy the race of tomorrow.
“I tried to follow, but when he was in front in corner three, corner four, I was trying to understand where it was possible to gain.
“I was gaining a bit on the braking but it was not enough to close the gap to him, and he was continuing on [1’39], and it was too fast for me today.”
Bagnaia does not believe the pace will be quite as strong in the longer Sunday race, with tyre degradation coming into play as the race progresses.
“I don’t think that the pace tomorrow will be strong like this because already today with 12 laps the front tyre was a bit destroyed, and the rear tyre was finished,” he said. “Normally with me the rear tyre feels a bit better, but let’s see tomorrow.
“We need a bit more traction and we perfectly know that Aprilia, on the first part of acceleration, is very competitive and on the first part of pick-up, and on the edge [of the tyre], so we are working on it.
“It will not be easy because the gap is a little bit high in this moment, but never say never and we will try for sure.”
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