English
Italiano
At the end of the Jerez race in which a perfect Pecco Bagnaia, who started seventh from the third row, quickly asserted himself first with a double overtaking on the outside under braking, and then, after Martin's crash, battling tooth and nail against a fierce Marc Marquez and setting a stratospheric 1'37''449 with three laps to go. This was a victory that took Pecco back to the top of the standings, second 17 points behind leader Jorge Martin. There was justified satisfaction on the part of his Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi, with whom we exchanged a few words at the end of the race.
"It was a masterpiece designed by the world champion against an equally great eight-time world champion," the Ducati factory team manager commented in the heat of the moment.
In the pits, however, you were suffering, and you didn't even have a heart rate monitor.
"Because they were afraid I would break it - he joked - those two guys did an incredible race finish, I want to emphasize Pecco's overtaking on the first lap, he passed two from the outside, I repeat it was a masterpiece. Today was one of those days that place Bagnaia in the Olympus of champions."
You mentioned the overtaking on the first lap, but there was also the response to Marquez's attack and the fast lap with three laps to go.
"That 1'37'44 was something almost unexpected but superhuman."
Today we also saw as many as five Ducatis first across the line.
"We are working well, Ducati supports the satellite teams well. However, let's not underestimate our opponents for this, KTM and Aprilia have shown they are competitive, a race ago in fact they were first and second, they are also doing well. So we are happy on our side but we don't stop working because we know they will arrive soon."
The start of the season was not easy for Pecco, has the bad moment passed?
"Pecco did not have the feeling on the bike that he showed today on the track. He has always been very honest in the box in telling the engineers his feelings, and they have been good in trying to solve his problems. We have improved in some aspects and in others maybe we will improve tomorrow. We believe we can give him even more confidence on this bike."
After this race the headache of having to decide which rider to ride alongside him in the factory team will now be greater.
"The headache will come when we start reasoning about it. We said we want to wait a few more races, three or four are not enough to make a thoughtful decision for us and the other riders. As of today we have not started any reasoning yet, the guys who aspire to the second seat in the official team still have time to prove it."
