Francesco Bagnaia says he is “not here to finish third” after a disappointing weekend for the Ducati rider at the MotoGP season opener in Thailand.
Bagnaia struggled throughout the Thai GP, as he had to go through the first round of qualifying on Saturday and was only able to finish third in both races behind Marc and Alex Marquez.
The Italian expressed disappointment with his results but acknowledged that he had extracted “the maximum” from the weekend.
“I’m not here to finish third,” Bagnaia said during the post-race press conference.
“I learnt from last year that it’s important to take the maximum and to take the correct risk.
“Today, I was just trying to manage the situation because I was a bit risking to finish third. I was there behind and every time I was trying to close the gap I was having problems with the front.
“So, it was the maximum I could [do]. I will never sign for a third place but it was the maximum, and next time I will try to be second and then, the time after, first.
“But I need to start working on my setup, on my bike, like we did from Saturday, and close the gap to them [Alex and Marc Marquez].”
Bagnaia: Marc Marquez ‘played’ MotoGP field in Thailand
Bagnaia suggested he was already on the backfoot throughout the weekend due to problems he’d had at the Buriram test, which led to him arriving under-prepared for the race.
“On Friday we finished the job that we didn’t do in the test, so I needed to set up a bit more on Saturday morning, and I was a bit too late,” Bagnaia said.
“I didn’t try well the front tyres. Yesterday, I decided to go with the hard [front tyre] but it wasn’t the correct choice and today I used the soft that was working much better, but I think I wasn’t on the correct setup for trying to have an advantage.”
The Turin native also hinted at potential mind games developing on team-mate Marc Marquez’s side of the garage.
Marquez won Sunday’s race by 1.732s over his brother Alex despite dropping behind the Gresini rider due to a tyre pressure warning.
Bagnaia insisted he felt Marquez “played” with both riders over the Thai weekend.
“I think that Marc [Marquez] today played a bit with us, also for his problem with the pressure; but as soon as he decided to go he gave me like 2.3 seconds in three laps.
“So, he was much faster and I have to improve, learn what he’s doing better, and close this gap because I know that the next two race weekends [Argentina and the US] are very good for both of them but I need to be closer.”
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