MADRID, 7 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Italian rider Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) will try to forget the tremendous scare he suffered last Sunday at the Montmeló track (Barcelona) and consolidate his leadership in the MotoGP category of the Motorcycle World Championship at the San Marino Grand Prix, twelfth round of the calendar to which the Spanish Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) arrives with morale through the roof, while his compatriots Pedro Acosta (Kalex) and Dani Holgado (KTM) will try to maintain their leads in Moto2 and Moto3, respectively.
“I was crossing my fingers so that nobody touched me or ran over me, I was lucky that five drivers were already out of the race,” Bagnaia said this Thursday at a press conference at the Marco Simoncelli track, where he appeared four days after experiencing a moment very tense at the Catalunya Grand Prix.
The championship leader crashed when he was leading the first bars of the race after a stranger on his ‘Desmosedici’ and was left exposed to the rest of the bikes on the asphalt, with the ‘fortune’ that only South African Brad Binder’s KTM allowed him. rolled up, at the height of the legs. He came to fear some serious injury, but the protections saved him and he didn’t even suffer a fracture that put his participation in the championship at risk.
The ‘Pecco’ received the go-ahead from the doctors to be able to run in this San Marino Grand Prix, where he will defend a 50-point advantage over the Spanish Jorge Martín (Ducati), who could not cut him more in Montmeló due to the power they showed the Aprilias throughout the weekend and that only the current world champion had been able to worry about.
Waiting to see what his true physical condition is, Bagnaia aspires to achieve a triplet of victories at Misano, where he won in 2021 and 2022 and which is a track that fits well with the Borgo Panigale factory bikes, which they lost prominence to those of Noale, led by a great Aleix Espargaró.
The driver from Granollers had a great weekend in his ‘home’ race where he achieved his first victory in the Sprint format and added his second on a Sunday this season after Silverstone (England). 37 points that, although they keep him far from the leader (106 points), encourage him for this second stage of the campaign where his bike seems more competitive, which was also demonstrated by the good performance of Maverick Viñales, third on Saturday and second on Sunday, and the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira, from the satellite team and who was fifth.
For his part, the Spanish Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) will once again face another hard weekend and in search of finding the best possible performance for his motorcycle, always thinking more about 2024. In Montmeló, he scratched three points and was once again the best of the four mounts of the mark of the golden wing.
ACOSTA AND HOLGADO, LEADERS TO FOLLOW
As for the Moto2 and Mot3 categories, they are still led by the Spaniards Pedro Acosta (Kalex) and Dani Holgado (KTM), who hope to be able to leave the Marco Simoncelli track with a good point income, higher in the case of the former.
The Mazarrón rider consolidated his leadership in Montmeló and increased his lead to 22 points, although he missed a good opportunity to have taken a good ‘bite’ from the Italian Tony Arbolino, who started at the back of the grid. The Murcian could only finally be sixth in a race won by the British Jake Dixon (Kalex), now ranked third, although still 44 points behind the lead.
Finally, in Moto3, Dani Holgado added one more Grand Prix as leader of the general classification, the position he has held since the premiere in Portugal, and which is now more threatened after adding his second ‘0’ of the season, which was not from all used by the Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna).
The Asian was unable to get on the podium and finished fourth, adding 13 points, the same distance that now separates him from Alicante. The Spanish Jaume Masiá (Honda) was second after the Colombian David Alonso (GasGas) and was 32 points behind his compatriot.
2023-09-07 17:23:31
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