Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia gave his verdict on Marc Marquez’s performance and overall health after the Spaniard won the Czech Grand Prix.
The title race is truly on, as Marc Marquez won the Czech Grand Prix to close the gap between himself and Marco Bezzecchi.
It was a thrilling performance from Marquez, who got the better of his teammate, Francesco Bagnaia, towards the middle of the race.
Marc Marquez makes it back-to-back wins at the Czech Grand Prix! What was your main takeaway from the race?
Coming into the race, there was concern about the rider’s health. And even though Marc Marquez admitted he felt empty towards the end, he still managed to secure the win.
Davide Tardozzi suggested Marquez is still far from 100% and needs time to recover from his injuries. But Bagnaia believes the Ducati ace doesn’t need to be fully healthy to continue winning.
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Francesco Bagnaia claims ‘fantastic’ Marc Marquez doesn’t ‘need’ to be 100% to win races
Speaking to TNT Sports after the Czech Grand Prix, Francesco Bagnaia was asked about his thoughts on Marc Marquez’s win in Brno despite not being fully healthy.
Bagnaia suggested that Marquez, even in a limited state, can still compete for race wins, as riders don’t have to push for the entire length of Grand Prix races compared to sprint races and qualifying.
“Luckily, he’s not 100%. I don’t think he’s still far. For qualifying? Maybe.
“But for races, you don’t need to push 100% because you need to manage. He’s good enough; his physical conditioning is doing a fantastic job.
“I always look at previous races from each GP, and the statistics for Marc at this track are like a second-place average. So it’s a good track for him. He’s doing a fantastic job, and he’s getting used to this bike.”
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Do you agree with Pedro Acosta’s verdict on Francesco Bagnaia losing to Marc Marquez at Ducati?
Francesco Bagnaia says he couldn’t fight back after Marc Marquez overtake
Speaking further in the interview, Bagnaia explained why he wasn’t able to fight back for his position once Marquez overtook him.
“I feel good because I think we had a good weekend, a good race. We are improving. I’m still missing something with used tyres. But we’re getting closer. Today, we were missing just six laps. I tried to manage with everything. The pace was quite good.
“I know that I was missing maybe one or two-tenths per lap, but as soon as Marc overtook me, I needed to slow down because close to them, I started to lose the front a lot of the time. The understeer was huge so I needed to slow down and let them go away.
“Then I tried to push again. Luckily, Diggia was far enough to control. As soon as I started to push again, I improved the lap time, which is good, but I need to improve on the pace.”
Given how impressed Marquez was with Bagnaia’s sprint win yesterday, it wouldn’t be surprising to find out that the Spaniard planned ahead to counteract his teammate.
Leaving Brno, Bagnaia will have to settle for a sprint win, as he and Ducati set their sights on Assen to try and address his tyre issues in the meantime.
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