2024 MotoGP World Championship
Round 14 – Misano
Gran Premio Pramac dell’Emilia-Romagna
Francesco Bagnaia – P1
“I did everything to make sure my riding was as close to 100% as possible and luckily I managed to do so. Today’s race pace was crazy. Just two weeks ago, to be lapping in the 31.2/3 was already an incredible achievement, while today we were consistently quicker than that. Once again, I didn’t get the best of starts and I found myself also behind Brad (Binder). Once I moved up to second, I found myself with a 0.7secs gap, and it was hard to get the better of Jorge (Martín); without his mistake, it would have been a lot harder to overtake him. I was very quick in that sector, and I would have tried to pass him there anyway. I’m happy because we narrowed the gap down to the lead a bit more, but the most important race awaits us tomorrow and it’ll be key to get a good start and be in the lead from the get-go. I’d like to thank the team for the amazing work done and the fans for being here with us.”
Enea Bastianini – P3
“It was a complicated race, although less than expected. I stayed fairly close to the frontrunners, who until today had shown a pace that was almost unrivalled. The most difficult part for me is in the first three-four laps, but I was still confident of being able to close the gap. Unfortunately, both of them were pushing really hard. We surely need to make some improvements ahead of tomorrow because I noticed we were not at our best in some parts of the track, so I think we can do something better. Let’s see how it goes tomorrow: it’s likely going to be a different race because we’ll probably be forced to use the medium rear tyre, but we’ll do our best.”
Marc Marquez – P4
“Had we started on the front row today, we would have still finished fourth. Our race pace made this our higher target. We must be happy that with this fourth place, which I think will be our goal for tomorrow as well. Today we crashed while trying to improve, I don’t feel fully comfortable on these tyres and we need to try to keep improving and get closer to Pecco and Martin.”
Pedro Acosta – P5
“Good day for us from the morning to the sprint in the afternoon. We were faster in the sprint than last week in San Marino, so it is a positive for us. The maximum for us today was top 4, Marc Marquez made the difference in the first laps while I was fighting with Brad Binder, but top 5 is not bad, and close to our target. Still, we finished 6.5 seconds behind the winner, and it is quite a big gap, so there is still a lot of work for us to do.”
Brad Binder – P6
“My speed was decent and to do a 30.6 in Q2 was my quickest lap around here. I messed up the Sprint because it took too long for the front tire to come up to performance and I almost crashed and went wide in Turn 11. I needed two laps to get my feeling and then I could ride OK. It still wasn’t fast enough but at least I could push and I’m happy enough with the result because I thought I had ruined the race by the time we go to Turn 6 for the first time. Tomorrow I definitely need to work on that tire situation, and we should be pretty good.”
Fabio Quartararo – P7
“It was a great Sprint race. I enjoyed it on the bike today. Unfortunately, we could not try to put in an overtake on Brad, but let’s see if we can make a step tomorrow. The start was good today, so hopefully we can do that again tomorrow and then maybe fight for the top 6 in the Race. We will try to modify a few things. The conditions are always changing, so we will try to adapt to the condition and the temperature of the track.”
Marco Bezzecchi – P8
“A good race, even though I expected a little more after qualifying. I didn’t start badly, then I stayed in Fabio’s slipstream (Quartararo), but I was really struggling with the temperature of the front tire more than with the pressure. He was able to make the bike turn much better, I’m still struggling with that aspect of riding. Then I tried everything in the last two laps, he crossed me and overtook me again. A good battle, a good race overall and lots of data for tomorrow.”
Maverick Vinales – P10
“During the test, we figured out what we were missing in order to improve. The feeling is better than the first race in Misano. We have made a huge step forward, despite the track not having much grip. With the medium tyre, the bike is much more predictable and easier to ride. The goal is to start from the second row and, from there, build two good races. We need to strive to give one hundred percent and to continue on this growth trend.”
Miguel Oliveira – P11
“It was good! I felt better today with the bike – just did not get the best lap in Q2 but, for sure, I had another 3 tenths there and I could have been on the end of the second row, or beginning of the third row but, there it is. The Sprint race, was OK. When you start mid-field anything can happen and I kinda got stuck a bit in the first couple of laps, lost the group that ended up finishing 3 seconds in front of me but I did the best I could – ended up with no points but let’s see tomorrow.”
Aleix Espargaro – P12
“Compared with Misano 1, we have made steps forward and in the battle for the top six, we are not far off. We are doing a lot of hard work. We tested a radically different bike and we have other ideas as well for the sprint race. We know that Misano is a difficult track for Aprilia, but we’ll try our best. The goal for qualifying is to start from the second row. I am rather confident in my flying lap and I’ll be giving one hundred percent.”
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