Francesco Bagnaia conceded that he was “destroyed” by mid-distance of the MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix due to not being able to use his legs while riding his Ducati.
The factory Ducati ace suffered severe contusions on his legs as a result of being hit by an unsighted Brad Binder after he crashed at the start of last weekend’s Catalan GP, meaning the heavy bruising that resulted limited his movement on the bike and prevented him from using his legs to help him manoeuvre his Desmosedici around the tight and twisty Misano venue.
With Bagnaia thus having to primarily use his arms to navigate his bike around the course, he struggled to maintain peak physical shape across the entirety of the race – the Italian lucky to hang onto a rostrum in the short Saturday sprint over 12 laps due to his drop in performance in the closing stages.
An increased dosage in painkillers for Sunday’s 27-tour San Marino GP helped his cause to an extent, Bagnaia challenging eventual race winner Jorge Martin across the opening half of the outing before his sub-optimal physical condition caught up to him – the reigning world champion first falling behind Marco Bezzecchi before narrowly hanging on ahead of KTM tester Dani Pedrosa to claim third.
Bagnaia admitted he was “destroyed” after just 15 laps due to having to overuse his arms to move around his Ducati, but felt that his achievement of securing a podium finish just seven days after his horrific Catalan crash was an “incredible” way to end the weekend.
“It was a hard weekend for sure but I think we did something incredible because being ready for a fight like we had this race wasn’t easy,” explained Bagnaia.
“I was destroyed because normally I use my legs a lot to ride and don’t have problems with my arms, but this weekend I couldn’t use the legs so I had to do something different.
“I tried everything because I knew it was important to be at the front so I tried to overtake Jorge (Martin) in one or two places but he had a clear advantage in terms of performance.
“I was struggling overall and could gain in the fast corners like Curvone so that I could have a chance, but after 15 laps only using the arms to ride left me destroyed and the front tyre pressure with the new regulation was too high so I couldn’t do anything.
“When I lifted a bit for a couple of laps after Marco (Bezzecchi) passed me I could find more energy to push in the last laps to not allow Dani (Pedrosa) overtake me, but it was tough.”
With Bagnaia having only given away 14 points to main title rival Martin across the Misano event – his points lead standing at 36 heading to India in two weeks time – he declared that finishing on the rostrum this weekend was “massively important”, adding that he felt the race could have been “a different story” had he been fully fit.
“It was massively important to be on the podium for myself, Dani was pushing a lot and when I saw that with six laps to go he was 0.2s behind I said ‘oh fuck’,” continued Bagnaia.
“I did a couple laps with a 1:32.7s and was struggling, but then tried to push again to in the last couple laps to just stay ahead and managed to do a couple low 1:32s.
“Jorge did an amazing job all weekend, maybe if I was in a better condition it could have been a different story where I could fight more, but it’s difficult to say.
“It was easy to give up the race and just finish, but we did a great race which makes me really happy.”
