Valentino Rossi spoke about the rider from his Academy: “He does things like a champion, and now it will be tough to beat him. But Martin is still close”
Always his mentor and “coach,” Valentino Rossi has built an incredible school of riders, even before his retirement, with four of them currently in the MotoGP world championship. The most prominent is clearly Pecco Bagnaia. Having grown up in the VR46 Academy, the rider from Chivasso has now become the main reference point in MotoGP, with two consecutive world titles.
Valentino Rossi’s Comments
Valentino Rossi shared his thoughts on today’s Sprint Race with Sky Sport: “I watched the race trackside, between turns 6 and 7, under the big screen where there’s not much crowd. During practice, I like to move around, but for the race, it’s nice to be there”, the nine-time world champion began.
Then, he spoke about “his” rider: “Pecco is coming off an incredible run, and this weekend, he started very strong. Martin is still close, but Pecco seems to have that little extra lately: he’s very calm, riding well, and incredibly fast… Right now, I don’t see any weaknesses in Bagnaia”.
“He has the speed, he’s incredibly fast, and his starts… that last part is something special, something like Verstappen does. Starting well consistently isn’t easy, sometimes you expect a mistake, but Pecco is always on point”
“Under pressure, he’s been giving his all lately, finding that edge that few have. I think this is Bagnaia’s strength: he’s aggressive but not dirty, clean but not soft… he’s the perfect mix of fierceness, aggression, oversteer, and everything else. It’s tough to beat Pecco now, but Martin is still close”.
“They’re still tied in points, so there’s a good chance it will come down to the wire. Martin is incredibly fast, with great one-lap speed and strong starts… and these are the things that count in MotoGP nowadays. I think before the break, Pecco was in better shape, especially since Martin was disappointed with Ducati, but he came back strong after the break. You can see from the outside that they’re the two fastest, the ones with that extra tenth”.
Rossi: “VR46, Great Line-Up. And with Bezzecchi…”
Rossi also commented on his team: “We’re very happy to have Franco Morbidelli in the team; he was the first rider from the Academy after Simoncelli. It’s a great line-up: two Italian riders, with Diggia doing very well and Franco being part of VR46. But we want to finish strong with Bezzecchi because we’re not that far off”.
“Bez is in a tougher mental state because the GP22 was better in some ways than the GP23. Last year, he was fighting for wins on the right weekends; this year, he’s battling for places like eighth. But we’re supporting him, and it would be fantastic to get a great result before our time together ends,”, Rossi concluded.
Photo: Ducati Corse, ValeYellow46
