Bagnaia studies as a champion. He is the favorite in MotoGP

The driver from Chivasso, author of a season between lights and shadows, is regenerating himself In the last six races he has won three wins and four pole positions

CHIVASSO

The World Championship is “on vacation”: for teams and riders there are weeks off, after having rounded the halfway mark. Eleven races disputed, ten to run and, even if there are no written verdicts yet, the races disputed so far have already given important indications, also on the account of the Chivassese centaur Pecco Bagnaia, who on the eve of the World Championship was indicated as the number one favorite for the final victory. So far, things have not gone very well, but Bagnaia has given important signals. Let’s start with the positive notes: Pecco has shown that he is a top rider, perhaps the strongest in MotoGP, when all goes well.

In the last six races he has taken three wins, four pole positions and three fastest race laps. Numbers that say a lot about the rider and the bike. What has been lacking so far is continuity: in the same six races Bagnaia has also made three retirements, at times being absolutely innocent (as when he was overwhelmed at the first corner by the Japanese Nakagami, on other occasions making mistakes which, as always, he admitted and from which he is learning. Pecco then paid for a start to the season in which the feeling with the 2022 version of his Ducati Desmosedici was not yet ideal and this allowed the reigning world champion, Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), to take the The last race before the break, the Dutch Grand Prix at Assen could have meant a turning point: Quartararo on the ground, Bagnaia on the top step of the podium and 25 points gnawed. The gap is still significant: the French has 172 points, against Bagnaia’s 106 and between the two there are also Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia, 151) and Johann Zarco (Ducati, 114). In less than a month the championship will resume (7 August in G Great Britain, on the legendary Silverstone circuit). Ducati’s general manager, Gigi Dell’Igna, is confident about his rider’s chances of a comeback: «In Assen Pecco was superb and showed all his skill, strength and experience. A great race for him, also, and above all, from a psychological point of view, because after the last crashes the pressure was great but he was able to manage it in an exemplary way, even more so in the difficult weather conditions. We have regained altitude and are aware that there are still many races left and we will have opportunities to have our say ». Even the person concerned believes it: he has never hidden when it was time to admit mistakes, he does not hold back now that he has to face a challenge that seems impossible to some. He does it with the usual logic, based on mathematics: «There are many points to recover, but if the ambition last year was to recover 70 in five races, now there are 66 in nine races. Fabio is clearly the strongest, he drives the Yamaha perfectly, but we can assert ourselves. We try”. After the break, the championship will resume at a fast pace: two races in August (GB and Austria), three in September (San Marino, Aragon and Japan) and October (Thailand, Australia and Malaysia), before the final appointment on 6 November in Valencia. –

Federico Bona