MotoGP Mandalika Test: ‘More than one favourite for the title’ - Bagnaia

Despite a relatively quiet preseason, Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia heads into the 2022 MotoGP Championship as a firm favourite for the title.

Having run under the radar for the majority of the five days of testing, both at Sepang in Malaysia and Mandalika in Indonesia, Bagnaia concluded both outings sixth overall in the combined and increasingly tight times.

“Finally we found a compromise that I like so I think that in Qatar we will start well,” Bagnaia said of his preseason test programme.

“Is difficult to say something about who was the fastest because today the worst tyre was the medium but was the only one they will take in the weekend - because they will not take this soft for the race weekend. Just me, Marini and Bezzecchi were trying the race simulation with the medium and was really difficult to do more laps because was slippery and was sliding a lot. The soft was for sure better and all the others were using soft.

“Looking at my pace when I was with soft is very close to the fastest one but today was very important to do more laps with medium, to understand the tyre, to understand the condition. Today it was very hot because there were 62 degrees on the asphalt so the pace was not so bad considering the medium.”

Last season’s runner up spent the majority of the past week’s available track time getting up to speed with the new GP22 alongside a raft of Bologna riders, and with six of the eight Ducati riders running the updated spec, there were a lot of hands on deck. The Italian, however, is quick to comment that the change in bike is taking some time to adjust.

“I’m very happy to have done a good last part of last year and to be with the other Ducati riders working on this new project” he explained from Lombok on