‘The angryness I brought from Japan today helped me to be closer to Oliveira and Miller’ – Pecco Bagnaia

The third place today in Buriram earned Pecco Bagnaia a key approach to Fabio Quartararo in the standings, and if the nervousness when the rain started to fall made him feel some discomfort, one of the factors that helped him was the anger from Motegi.

Asked what he felt when he saw the rain fall, after having been the leader in the preparation session for this sunday’s race, the italian started by saying: ‘I wasn’t very happy, honestly. All weekend but more this morning I had a new setup for the Warm Up and everything was perfect, with my best Warm Up ever, all set for a dry run but then when I saw the rain starting to fall I was a little nervous’.

Then Jack Miller, his teammate, helped him: ‘That’s when Jack came to me and said something about me believing in myself more under these conditions. I knew that my potential in the wet wasn’t the same as Mandalika’s, or even in Japan because normally last year I was competitive in the wet: not to be on the podium but to be in the top five’.

Afterwards, Bagnaia said that the bad feelings of the last GP helped him to be better today in Thailand:

– Today I think that the anger of Japan helped me to be closer to them, because normally Jack, Miguel and also Johann [Zarco] are three of the fastest riders in these conditions and I was sure that being close to them was a good idea. I was struggling in the final stages of the race with the front tyre, but I think it was like that for everyone.