Francesco Bagnaia was happy to finish second in the Austrian Grand Prix to an “incredible” Brad Binder, the Ducati pilot declaring his “first victory is coming.”
Bagnaia relieved pole-man Jorge Martin of the lead on the opening tour and controlled proceedings for the bulk of the encounter, only losing the lead to Marc Marquez as rain started to fall with just half-a-dozen tours remaining.
The Italian-like most of his front running rivals- elected to pit to change to his wet-prepared Desmosedici with only a few laps to go, though KTM’s Binder risked staying out on slicks to try and claim a shock win.
The sophomore racer managed to survive the sodden conditions over the final two circulations to claim his second career win, Bagnaia charging back to second after starting the last lap in tenth-the 2018 Moto2 world champion a full 15 seconds quicker than Binder.
Bagnaia reckons he did “the perfect job” in the circumstances, though accepted that he could do nothing about the “incredible” Binder from securing his first win of the year and was satisfied to narrow his points gap to Fabio Quartararo-leaving him 47 adrift in second overall, tied with Suzuki’s Joan Mir.
“I know our first victory is coming, we deserve it for the work we are doing,” said Bagnaia.
“In any case I’m happy with today and we got the maximum possible, it was a difficult choice to change the bike but it was the correct one because Brad (Binder) was incredible in the wet conditions on the slicks.
“He was so far in front and it was incredible what he did, but it’s good to finish as the first as the riders on wets, Marc (Marquez) was leading us but then had a crashed that I very nearly repeated because it was very difficult to get temperature on the rain tyres.
“In any case we did the perfect job today.
“We are close and I want this win, the good thing is that we have closed the (points) gap to Fabio (Quartararo) and I think with this result we are more confident to fight (for the title.)”
Bagnaia revealed that he was “very angry” after feeling he had given up any chance of standing on the rostrum by pitting, admitting he was “trying to count” riders while charging through the pack on the final tour to see if he had managed to salvage a podium.
“There was a big difference between us (on wets) and them (on slicks) because they had no grip and we did, but I was not expecting to finish on the podium and I was very angry before the finish line but then as I was overtaking on the last lap I was trying to count them but I lost count when I was fourth,” continued Bagnaia.
“He (Binder) is completely crazy, I think that is only something Jack (Miller) or Brad can do because already two laps before that with a little bit of rain I was struggling, I let Marc past because he is always very strong in those conditions.
“The decision to remain on slicks was a crazy decision for sure.”
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