“Smell” of rain enabled factory Ducati duo to avoid Jorge Martin’s error

Factory Ducati MotoGP duo Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini say they were able to smell that the Misano track was not ready for wet tyres in the San Marino Grand Prix.

Spots of rain fell on and off on the build-up to Sunday’s grand prix at Misano, as forecasts predicted the possibility of a heavy cell of poor weather hitting the circuit during the race.

• 2024 San Marino MotoGP, Misano - Race Results

The race was declared dry to begin with, but on lap seven of 27 rain fell hard enough to trigger a flag-to-flag scenario.

Six riders, including championship leader Jorge Martin while he was running second, elected to pit for their wet bikes. But the rain was only brief and that proved to be the wrong strategy.

Marc Marquez went on to win the grand prix, while Bagnaia and Bastianini completed the podium.

After the race, both Bagnaia and Bastianini - who are local to the circuit and use it frequently for training - revealed that their sense of smell correctly dictated their strategies.

“The one that we had on Thursday,” Bagnaia said of the smell the Misano circuit gives off when it is wet.

“On Thursday it was raining in the paddock and the smell was heavy.

“So, it’s a thing that I know well and it was not smelling like this.

“I was quite scared because I saw Morbidelli crash, and when he crashed I slowed down more and I saw the guys behind arriving.

“But I didn’t want to take any risk and even more when Jorge entered the pits.”

Bastianini added: “I thought to remain on track because here when it starts to rain and it rains a lot, the track smells a bit of water.

“And today [it didn’t]. Also, today it was cloudy but not too much. I thought ‘Ok, it will be light rain’ and I decided to continue and it was the right choice.”

Marquez was running in the lead group when Martin boxed and said he had no thoughts to do so at that time.

But he admits that he was able to correctly call his strategy because he “followed the local guys” and that Martin's call wasn't "very crazy".

“I mean, of course the strategy of Martin was not very crazy because if in that lap it continued the same amount of water, he would have the best strategy," the race winner said. 

"But it’s true that I said I will follow the local guy and the local guy stayed out. They know better than me. And then I said ‘if they stay out, I’ll stay out’. And all the Italians stayed out.

“I asked my team, to Frankie [Carchedi, crew chief], before the start of the race and he said the forecast says no but maybe something can arrive.

“But when they say maybe something can arrive, they mean light rain.

“But you never know. In those conditions, it’s only a bit more or a bit less.

“You see Franco Morbidelli in that Turn 1, he lost the front and was quite wet. But as I say, and it’s not a joke, I followed the local guys as they know better than me.”