Francesco Bagnaia insisted he found MotoGP title rival Jorge Martin’s Friday practice mind games “fun” and is confident of fighting back from 15th and a trip to Qualifying 1.
Bagnaia, who starts the Valencia finale with a 21-point lead over Martin, stuck to his usual tactic of running used tyres for much of Friday practice.
But when the time then came to deliver a flying lap to secure a top ten place for direct Qualifying 2 access, Bagnaia was in trouble.
“Yeah. Honestly, we needed more time to improve our situation,” Bagnaia told MotoGP.com. “I was struggling and normally we finish the job in the final part of the session. But today we struggled more.
“For tomorrow we already have ideas of where to improve because from the data we are losing five tenths in three corners. So it’s better that the situation is that one, so we can solve it and get prepared for the Sprint race.”
But the pace problem aside, Bagnaia was also the subject of mind games from Martin, who waited and then left the pits behind the reigning champion for the crucial final run.
Others had joined in, but when Bagnaia darted off track to shake off his pursuers, Martin went with him and remained on the rear wheel of the factory team machine.
While Martin was towed to second place behind Maverick Vinales, Bagnaia failed to break the top ten on his penultimate lap and was condemned to 15th when Pol Espargaro fell and brought out yellow flags.
Underlining that the Spaniard realistically needs to win both races this weekend, Bagnaia said of Martin’s tactics:
“I think he has to be more focused on his job right now, because he’s not the fastest and doing that is for sure not the moment. But it was fun, honestly.”
“Absolutely,” Bagnaia then replied, when asked if he was confident of turning his pace around tomorrow.
Bagnaia has a chance to win his second title in the Saturday Sprint, if he can beat Martin by at least four points.
With team-mate Enea Bastianini also in Qualifying 1, Bagnaia might well get a tow to assist with his progress into Qualifying 2.
Keyword: Valencia MotoGP: Francesco Bagnaia: Mind games? “Martin should focus on his job, he's not the fastest”