MotoGP Silverstone: Bagnaia ‘thinking race by race, ‘expecting top five’

Ducati Lenovo’s Pecco Bagnaia placed himself firmly back in the MotoGP title fight after a stunning win at Silverstone on Sunday.

Two races earlier, Bagnaia sat sixth in the standings and facing a seemingly-impossible 90-point deficit to Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo but with two victories on the bounce - and two difficult weekends for the reigning champion - the gap has been slashed to just 49 with the Italian back in the top three.

While Bagnaia shone on Sunday, the result was far from expected by the 25-year-old.

“I wasn’t thinking about a win today. I already said that today was difficult to win, so I was expecting a top five,” he admitted on Sunday evening. “But this morning, we found a good step in front with using the rear hard and then for the race we decided to use the medium front. I wasn’t happy about that choice, but was the only way possible to do the race because with the soft I was more in trouble with the grip in the braking.

“In the last part of the race, this medium front has helped me a lot because the rear grip was totally finished, so I was just using the front tyre.

“I just would like to say thanks to all the people around me, in the box, of my team, of Ducati, and at home because I was struggling a lot this weekend and with all their support I did a step in front. So I will like to put this win like one of my best ones because in a race week like this, that I was in trouble, win is always important. I’m very happy about that!”

Bagnaia admitting he was not totally on board with the tyre options is a story that’s played before. Valentino Rossi repeatedly mentioned last year how he spent Saturday evenings trying to convince his protégé to go in a different direction, with varying degrees of success. It