Francesco Bagnaia on Marc Marquez’s antics in French MotoGP practice: “A strategy I don’t share”
Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia gestured furiously after trying to initially shake of Repsol Honda rider Marquez, w꧃ho was clearly following him to set up his own fastest lap.
They both finished inside the top 10 but the edginess of Friday afternoon - with Bagnaia glaring furiously at the Honda garage before he went out agꩵain - has set up a tense S﷽aturday in Le Mans.
“Last year he was doing the same thing in Malaysi💧a,” Bagnaia told about Marquez.
“But then I crashed and he got into the front row💞 by himself.
“It's Marc Marquez, we al𝔍l know Marc Marquez's 𒁃speed, so it's a strategy I don't share.
“I'm really different, I want💝 to be alone in qualifying or when I do the time atta𒁏ck.
“He has his own strategy and he's taking it to another level in my opin♛ion: when you close, he stays there.
“If you keep y🐭our feet on the ground, he does the same thing.
“I🐼t🀅's an even more evolved strategy in sticking than before.”
F🐼riday was a tricky day for the reigning MotoGP champion.
“The last run helped me a lot to be calm, because before I was quite worried,” he said. “This morning everything was going very well, but then from the time attack onwards everythi❀ng was diffi♑cult.
“I thought it was just because I hadn't prepared the rear tire enough and that it wasn't ready y♏et, but then in the afternoon I restarted with the same tyre and I couldn't do the things I wanted, I was going long.
“I also lost a lot in acceleration, because there was 🅘a lot of spin.
"As soon as we put on a new tyre, everyt🅰hing was perfect🌜.
“I wasn't able to be as fast as I would have liked because I had lost feeling, but the time attack run is the only one💞 where I felt like great new on my bike in FP2.
“In the end it was just a tyre that wasn't working as it should haveღ, 𒉰but I lost almost 50 minutes of the session.
“That's why we're pretty𝓀 sure that tomorrow will be better and I'm happᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚy to be in the top 10.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade coveringꩵ everything from Ameri🌟can sports, to football, to F1.
