Revealed: Ducati conversations - "I felt sick with tension"
Francesco Bagnaia enters the last race of the season 23 points ahead of Fabio Quartararo in the MotoGP standings having overturned a 91-point deficit.
Bagnaia won the MotoGP Malaysia to become the red-hot favourite to claim a maiden title. Afterwards, intimate conversations in the Ducati and Yamaha garages have been revealed…
Quartararo to Bagnaia: Your race was scary.
Bagnaia to Quartararo: Best start of my life.
Davide Tardozzi to Bagnaia: I’m sick as a dog. I’ve been really sick.
Bagnaia: Because of the heat?
Tardozzi: No, from the tension.
Ducati engineer to Bagnaia: You didn’t see the race yourself.
Bagnaia: I had hopes for Marco Bezzecchi.
Engineer: [Bezzecchi] almost had [Quartararo]. He was 0.7s behind. Then he gave up.
Bagnaia: Me too, at the end. It was hard.
Quartararo to Diego Gubellini: I’m sorry we couldn’t beat Pecco again.
Gubellini: Championships are championships. You try your best but what happens happens. The important thing is, even after a race like that, you realise that even when we’re in the s*** everyone always gives their best.
We can do incredible things. You really do make the difference. You are one hell of a rider.
You made a nice move on Franco Morbidelli at Turn 9. That was quite some overtake.
Engineer: We sent Morbidelli a message to let you through! But he must have read it after you had already passed him!