The second on the timesheet represents a decent Friday for Francesco Bagnaia at the Italian Grand Prix, but the day was more complicated for the Italians.
Bagnaia arrived at Muguero for Italy’s Motogup this weekend with three consecutive Grand Prix victories at the Tuscan Circuit, but he faced a “strange move” from his Ducati des mesci GP25 on Friday.
“It was a day of up and down,” Francesco Bagnaia told Motogp.com after practicing at Muguero.
“I was a little upset because my bike was doing weird, weird movements this morning, so I didn’t understand it.
“Then I started off well this afternoon, but the rear grip was very low but I had to work in a strange way.
“Then we just changed the rear tires, we put in some new soft (composite tires), everything changed and everything was great.
“So my sense of Mugero came back there. It was a good relief. I’m very happy about it.
It was complications of the morning session that prevented Bagnaia from trying out the updated fairing that Ducati reintroduced in the post-race Aragon test and brought to Muguero on Friday.
“It was more important to understand what was going on,” the Ducati Lenovo team rider said on Friday as justification for not trying new fairings.
“The bike was strange and it was even more important to understand it.”
The day was not consistently good, but a positive end to it saw Bagnaia in a positive mood at the end of Friday.
“In the soft rear, everything was energized again during the attack, resembling Aragon Sunday,” he said.
“So I don’t want to say I’ve come back on my own, but today I was able to push very hard on the attack of time. And on my second attempt, I pushed hard and finished fuel when everything was very smooth. So I’m happy to feel this way.”