Bagnaia: Race length not the problem, ‘depends on the rider approach’

Bagnaia, who took his second MotoGP win of the weekend at Portimao, managed to again remove himself from the chaos of the opening few laps. 

After making a double overtake on Jorge Martin and Miguel Oliveira to close out lap two, Bagnaia avoided a costly mistake from Marc Marquez at turn three, an error that saw the eight-time world champion ruin the races of both riders Bagnaia overtook. 

• Revealed: Podium trio’s shock as they chat about Marquez’s incident 
• Vinales: ‘stewards need to work hard’, turn three ‘a bas***d - Bezzecchi

Speaking after Saturday’s Sprint race, where yet more collisions took place and resulted in injuries for the likes of Bagnaia’s teammate Enea Bastianini, the reigning champion spoke out about what is the cause for riders being overly aggressive at times. 

Bagnaia added: "Yesterday I didn’t say anything about what the other riders were saying because I was sure that it was the same thing today. 

"It’s always like this. It doesn’t depend if you have soft, medium or hard tyres, or 12/25 laps, it depends on the approach of each rider. 

"This track, for sure, is a track that’s easier to make mistakes because it is more close. The length [width] of the tarmac is not as big as Qatar maybe, and Qatar has no corners like turn three in this track. 

"Everyone is aggressive because everyone wants to get a good result and start the season in a good way. It doesn’t depend on the Sprint or main race. It depends on the approach of the rider."

Marquez needed hand surgery after causing a crash on Sunday, ruling him out of the Argentina MotoGP.

Bagnaia, who gained a big advantage due to the turn three incident, unexpectedly came under race-long pressure from Vinales, as a battle for the lead looked set to take place. 

Instead, the factory Ducati rider kept just enough tyre underneath him to respond on every occasion that Vinales ramped up his pace.

Bagnaia added: "I was trying not to think too much on the gap because I was seeing that it was closing. 

"But I didn’t want to think that I had to push more because it was a problem for the rear tyre. I just tried to be more constant and be a bit faster in every lap. It worked very well. 

"Just in the middle, after 15 or 16 laps, Maverick was pushing again to close the gap to me and sincerely, I was pushing again but with no more tyres. I was without trouble in the last two laps and finished with no tyres."