Francesco Bagnaia impresses, convinces, rides well and fast. Everything perfect except for the crash while running second. Ivan Ortolá finally returns to the podium with an outstanding third place!
Fastest lap in qualifying practice, ahead of his teammate, and second place in the Sprint race: everything suggested an excellent outcome also for Sunday’s race. However, our Pecco, due to a bike issue that “has not been solved for some time”, crashed while he was running in second position.
In the Moto2 race, Ivàn Ortolà amazed and thrilled everyone with a spectacular third place finish! The French weekend brings a very positive overall balance for Suomy riders, giving great hope ahead of the next round, already just around the corner, in Catalunya.
SPRINT RACE
Francesco Bagnaia finished second in the Sprint of the French Grand Prix, after an intense and eventful race at the Le Mans circuit. The Ducati rider, starting from pole position, managed the race with great composure, scoring important points for the World Championship standings. Bagnaia was one of the main protagonists of a Sprint marked by a particularly hectic start: despite launching from the front row, the rider from Piedmont had to respond to a decisive move by Jorge Martin, who took the lead in the opening corners. Pecco, however, remained fully focused and built his race on recovery and control, staying consistently among the front runners. Over the course of the laps, Bagnaia took advantage of a small mistake by Marco Bezzecchi to move up into second place, defending it with determination all the way to the checkered flag and showing great consistency in the middle and final stages of the short race.
RACE
It had been a weekend showing clear progress for Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia. The Ducati rider delivered encouraging signs right from Friday’s first sessions, confirming his competitiveness with pole position in qualifying and second place in the Sprint. Also in the main race, Bagnaia showed strong pace, staying at the front and consistently fighting for a podium position. The rider from Piedmont was in fact running second behind Marco Bezzecchi before the crash that prematurely ended his race.Despite the unfortunate outcome, Bagnaia underlined the overall value of the weekend, highlighting the progress made together with the team and the positive feeling finally regained on the Ducati. After the race, the rider explained that the incident was caused by a technical issue already experienced in the past, stressing that it was not due to human error. Bagnaia also clarified that the initial difficulty at the start and the technical issue were not related.
“They are two separate things: the start here is difficult because the bike is very low and there’s a long fast corner where you can’t bring it back up properly. When I touched the ground, I triggered a movement that I carried with me until I had to close the throttle because it was becoming too aggressive and I couldn’t turn in as I wanted. But I managed to recover it fairly well up to that point. The loss of confidence happened in the last seven laps and it kept getting worse. We know why I crashed and that helps us a lot”. The Ducati rider finally reiterated his confidence in the team’s work and in the planned development for the next rounds of the championship, with particular attention to the test sessions and the Barcelona GP. “I would rather focus on the fact that we were fast. Of course it hurts inside, but we were fast all weekend: we took pole position and today we were there and competitive. I have full confidence in the work we are doing and I’m sure we will arrive in Barcelona having made a big step forward.”
We are happy because we clearly made a step forward compared to the last race. At the start I lost the initial drive because the bike lifted a bit, but at Turn 1 I managed to regain one position. My pace was similar to Jorge’s (Martín) and for this reason I wasn’t able to catch him. We are missing something in acceleration and we will focus on that ahead of tomorrow. We have already tested our race pace over the full distance and we were among the fastest, even though it looks like tomorrow’s conditions will be very different.”
Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – Sprint Race 2°
“Overall the weekend was positive: we started strong and worked well, managing to be fast in every session and improving constantly. Today in the race we were in the fight despite some issues at the start, but we had a small problem that made me lose confidence in the front end. I tried to keep pushing to maintain the same pace, but in the end I lost the front. These things can happen. We are clear about where we need to work and we will do so for the next races.”
Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – Race DNF
MOTO 2
What a show. What a comeback. What talent. Our Ivàn Ortolà, despite setting the fifteenth fastest time in Q2 and therefore starting from far back on the grid for this fifth round of the season, surprised everyone.A new race lap record came on the fourth lap with a time of 1’34.455, improving by almost half a second the record set last year by Barry Baltus (1’34.941). An incredible recovery, and our S1-XR GP together with Ivan climbed onto the third step of the podium at the end of the race.In short, a weekend to remember and frame for all of us at Team Suomy. Fingers crossed and hopefully this is only the first of a long series. Forza Ivàn!
Click the button below to find out all the images of the #SuomyCrew during the weekend in France.
