Bagnaia cleared to race this weekend at Misano, whilst Bastianini is still 'under repair' from his fractures incurred at Catalunya last weekend. I have to (very happily) say I still find it extraordinary that Bagnaia escaped any serious injury. l saw it live (it was being shown live in the bar ahead of the F1 GP) and immediately fered the worst. The fact that the commentary in Spanish and they almost immediately changed the channel to F1 means I did not get any form of update until the evening, and I was expecting far worse news.
Anyway he is free to ride at what will be his home GP at Misano.
Bagnaia, 20th in Friday’s opening practice, said his main injury concern is an injury to his right knee.
Despite still recovering from the effects of the crash, Bagnaia is intent on challenging for victory at Misano in front of his home fans.
Bags had a few comments on the crash and his difficulties faced riding this weekend. He suggests it was purely tyres and nothing to do with him......
“First of all, I am pleased and lucky to be here. I have to say thanks to the hard work that Alpinestars are doing in terms of safety, the evolution; the work they are doing is for sure the top in the world,” said Bagnaia.
“I’m very happy, it’s my home Grand Prix and it’s very important to be here. We worked a lot and it was not easy because Monday was not an easy day.
“We worked very hard and I’m very proud of the work we did; it’s incredible what we did from Monday until now.
“I will continue all weekend to do therapy and we will improve every day. Let’s see. I tried to jump on the bike before and I feel OK.”
On his physical condition, Bagnaia added: “The biggest one is where the Brad Binder impact [occurred], which is the right knee. I have a big haematoma in the knee and it goes down to the foot.
“It will be a problem to move the leg, but let’s see.”
The championship leader, who holds a 50-point advantage over Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin going into round 12, said his crash was solely due to a tyre issue.
“From the bike I was just feeling from the warm-up lap that my rear grip was zero,” Bagnaia said.
“I almost crashed twice, three times in the warm-up lap at corner three, corner nine and corner 12 without pushing because it was the warm-up lap.
“Then in the first corner I was already losing the rear tyre. If you check the image, Jorge [Martin] had to brake a lot, this was why – I had this gap in the second corner.
“As soon as I leaned the bike and opened the gas, I completely lost the rear. We checked the data, analysed everything and in terms of the electronic and side, and riding style, we didn’t do any mistakes.
“We are waiting for Michelin to analyse everything… but it was quite heavy, quite a strange crash, so it’s important to understand everything.”
