MotoGP Australia: Francesco Bagnaia: “Was clear to me that soft tyre would have this type of drop”

The reigning MotoGP champion, who like race winner Johann Zarco, timed his late race attack to perfection as he picked off three riders in two laps.

Bagnaia was aided by Zarco forcing his way through on Brad Binder which opened the door for him to come past.

• Marc Marquez: “This year the gamble didn’t pay off” 
• Yamaha: 'We have 20 hours to come up with a solution'

However, Bagnaia’s pace was very good despite a relatively slow start as Martin, Binder and Fabio Di Giannantonio all pulled away from him.

A big day in the title fight as he gained more points on Martin when it looked like he would instead lose a big chunk, Bagnaia said: “Absolutely. It was very tough, very long. I think we missed Q2 yesterday just because we tried to work on the medium and do more laps on the medium. 

“This year the grip level was less than last year but the performance was faster. I was sure that the medium was already going to struggle for the race but we managed to do a good job. 

“I recovered again the feeling this morning and qualifying was very important to get the front row. 

“At one moment in the race I was a bit worried because Binder was going away but as soon as I saw Jorge stuck at the same gap, I said we will catch him. 

“I was expecting to catch him a bit sooner but finally, in the last lap we did it.”

Bagnaia forced his way through on title rival Martin at turn four of the final lap, after Zarco created a gap by diving to the inside of his team-mate.

Martin then slid to fifth as his soft rear tyre was leading to him spinning coming out of the faster corners.

Talking about Martin’s soft tyre gamble, Bagnaia added: “I think he was the only one with the possibility to race with the soft. 

“Yesterday he did many laps and was quite fast. But I think the maximum number of laps was 19 with a stop and start. In the races it is always a different story. 

“When I saw the gap it was not enough to have a bit of margin in the last laps. I was just trying to be careful with the rear tyre and I knew that as soon as Brad and Fabio were fighting, I could catch them a bit easier.”

Bagnaia was one of 18 riders out of 21 to use the medium rear tyre, which like the soft needed its own management in order to have performance late on.

“Today was very important to remain calm with the tyres,” said the championship leader. “As soon as I saw Martin going away I knew that he was going with the soft. 

“It was the only strategy with the soft to push like this. It was clear to me that he would have this type of drop.”