MotoGP pre-season favourite Francesco Bagnaia finished Friday practice for the Indonesian Grand Prix at Mandalika 21st-fastest – but described it as his “best day of the year”.
After a largely exploratory FP1 in which track conditions were still mostly dictated by overnight rain, the factory Ducati rider finished the much more representative FP2 outside the top 20 – but it was immediately clear that this was a deceptive result.
Riders improved their times en masse during late-session push laps on fresh soft rear rubber, but Bagnaia was denied the chance to string together a lap, having to abandon his efforts due to yellow flag-causing crashes for Enea Bastianini (Gresini Ducati) and Marc Marquez (Honda).
It therefore meant that his fastest time, recorded towards the end of a nine-lap medium-medium run, was 1.2s off the day’s benchmark.
Bagnaia was visibly frustrated after the session about how it had played out, but had more than cooled down in time for his media debrief.
“I’m happy that we have done a really good job today, it’s the best day of the year since the start of the season, also [including] the test,” he said.
“So I’m very happy about my feeling with the bike. We were jut a bit unlucky. I found the two yellow flags of Marc and Bastianini so I didn’t do a time attack. But in any case the pace with the medium, my pace was very strong.”
During an opening round in Qatar that proved difficult and eventually yielded zero points after a crash that also wiped out Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin, Bagnaia lamented how much development work he had had to do with his Desmosedici instead of preparing himself for the season. And Ducati seemed to concur, publicly apologising to its rider, which he has since said it needn’t have done.
Bagnaia said he has made no changes to the bike since the Saturday of the Qatar weekend, which he feels has been crucial to his unrewarded Friday performance in Indonesia.
“Compared to the test, I feel so much better on the bike. And also compared to Qatar, day one and day two, the same.
“I feel better, I can brake, I can be constant, and my feeling with the front is back and I’m happy about that.
“The feeling today was very good, and it was the first time this year that with a used tyre I was in the top three.
“I’m just adapting myself on the bike again, like I was doing the second part of last season. And also it’s automatism, that I need to have again. It’s easier to work like this.”
However, with inclement weather an ever-present threat, the Friday results risk consigning Bagnaia to fighting through Q1 – which he would prefer to avoid, even though he admitted it could be an “advantage” if you go through a wet Q1 into a wet Q2.
“I really hope to have the possibility to do just one [time] attack,” Bagnaia said of Saturday’s practice three, “because I lost the possibility with the two yellow flags today. I think the potential of us today was very high.”
