The three-week summer break has not dampened Pecco Bagnaia’s thirst for victory, determined to demonstrate again and again, as many times as necessary, why he is the mainstay of Ducati and the two-time reigning world champion in the premier category. With an unbeatable weekend, commanding all the sessions at the Dutch GP with the exception of the warm up, the Turin native once again spoke on the track about everything that is reserved outside of it. It is the first time in his career that he dominates from start to finish, without cracks, a grand prix from Friday to Sunday, also leading all the laps in the race on both Saturday and Sunday.
His victory in Assen, the cathedral of motorcycling and one of his favorite circuits, underlines the great moment of the Italian, who achieved his second consecutive full points in the competition and cuts his disadvantage over Jorge Martín to 10 points. The Madrid native, second classified more than three seconds behind number one, was unable to replicate the finesse and precision of his great rival for the title, but he left satisfied after signing his first podium on the Dutch track and maintaining the lead in the World Championship. Enea Bastianini, fourth in the table, completed the podium after another remarkable comeback from eleventh place on the grid.
Bagnaia, who has this circuit tattooed on his right arm to commemorate his first Moto3 world championship victory in 2016, was simply a level above the rest. His numbers here also reflect his love for the only track that has always been present in the 75-year history of the series: he is the first rider to have three consecutive victories here in the 21st century and his victory now equals Casey Stoner as the most successful rider on a Desmosedici with 23 victories.
“I have really enjoyed this weekend, we hit the nail on the head and everything went perfectly,” he said in the parc fermé. “You need to be precise, flow, be sweet, go in hard but hold the bike well because it tends to move a lot,” he explained in the previous days to explain his unparalleled pace on a dizzying circuit, full of fast corners. Both Martín and Márquez, teammates, had the data to understand where he was superior to them, but even with this they were unable to answer him. “Pecco was far superior to the rest, and the pace was devastating, a second per lap faster than last year. All that remains is to congratulate him, he was unbeatable,” acknowledged the Pramac rider.
The 93, meanwhile, frustrated and surprisingly unaggressive on Sunday, was unable to match the pace of the two Ducati leaders and ended up angry with his performance despite scraping together a fourth place that keeps him in third place in the championship. The Gresini rider let himself be overtaken when he was occupying a podium position in order to stay on the wheel and prevent his tyre pressure from dropping too much, and on two occasions he even caused a bit of a mess by braking on purpose and giving the initiative to Fabio DiGiannantonio, of VR46 Racing.
Bastianini took advantage of those breaks to emerge from the middle of the peloton and climb to the podium, in a fight for the crumbs that Bagnaia and Martín left for the rest. The rider from Rimini crossed almost four seconds behind his two teammates on the podium, in a test without much history in the leading positions. A couple of mistakes by Maverick Viñales, the only one capable of sneaking in among the Ducati ahead, knocked the Aprilia rider off the podium. In less than a week, at Sachsenring, the contest arrives in Márquez’s garden with Cervera’s team seeking to confirm his chances of taking the title this year. In Germany, it remains to be seen whether Aleix Espargaró and Alex Rins, who ended up bruised after crashing in Assen, can participate.
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on Facebook and Xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
2024-06-30 14:24:49
#Pecco #Bagnaia #achieves #perfection #Dutch #Motorcycling #Sports
