Francesco Bagnaia has hailed the scores of “true” fans at the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello as “the most important” relative to those that simply criticise him on social media.
The factory Ducati pilot enjoyed one of his most dominant MotoGP events to date at his home outing, Bagnaia leading the way in Friday practice before securing pole position as well as two commanding victories across the sprint and grand prix encounter’s respectively – securing his second successive win at Mugello in the process.
The reigning premier class world champion was treated to legions of fans cheering his name during the podium ceremony following Sunday’s grand prix, a phenomenon Bagnaia admitted he had never “seen like that.”
He added that for him the fans at Mugello represented his “true” supporters, as opposed to the scores of people constantly bombarding him with criticism across social media.
“For sure this has been the best weekend so far this season, pole position, the win in both races too so I’m very happy with everything and we did a really good job,” said Bagnaia.
“You can be criticised always on social media but then you are on track and you see that (the fans) and this is unbelievable.
“It’s one of the best things ever and for me it’s the first time I’ve seen something like that and these are the true fans and the most important for me so I’m happy to see it and let them enjoy.”
Describing the journey to his second straight Italian GP success, Bagnaia explained that he was keen to hold onto track position in the early laps against those who elected to choose the faster but less durable soft-compound rear tyre – including eventual runner-up Jorge Martin – in order to be able to manage his own tyre and pull away in the closing stanza.
“I wanted to push and open a gap at the start because I went with the medium (rear tyre) and I knew that many of them were with the soft so I just tried to open the advantage and not them be close,” continued Bagnaia.
“It was tough because Jorge (Martin) was pushing a lot like normal, but I was just trying to manage gap and when I saw he was starting to struggle I began to push more for a few laps to try and open the gap further.
“From then on I just tried to control, though it was tough because the rear tyre was gone completely as well as the front on the right side, so it wasn’t easy.”
