Francesco Bagnaia has revealed he got “scared” when Maverick Vinales approached him at high speed at the end of the opening MotoGP practice in Barcelona, causing him to lose control and crash.
Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia was circulating at leisurely speed following an aborted practice start at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya when Vinales overtook him around the outside at the end of the start/finish straight at near-racing speed.
Bagnaia subsequently locked the front of his GP24 and fell on the ground at Turn 1, scuffing his leathers in the process, but was able to walk away from the crash unscathed.
The crash was particularly bizarre as the session had been long over by then, with riders staying out on track solely to complete practice starts in preparation for Saturday’s sprint and the final race of the year on Sunday.
Explaining what happened from his point of view, Bagnaia conceded that he slowed down the bike more than he should have but was caught off guard when his Aprilia rival chose to pass him around the outside of the right-hander.
“I missed the start because my rear tyre spun and we are on the limit with the engine so I didn’t want to push on that because you never know [what can happen],” he recalled.
“So my mistake was to slow down that much but honestly when you are arriving that fast you go from the inside and it was full of space from the inside.
“I started to hear him and I thought he will go from the inside. But as soon as I saw him arriving in a normal speed from the outside on the kerb with the bike moving, I got scared so I lost the front like this.”
“The bike [with] these tyres doesn’t like it when you change [direction] quickly so you have to change things in a smooth way and I didn’t do [that].
Vinales felt he gave enough room to Bagnaia when he passed him going into Turn 1 and that the Italian likely braked too hard after getting freaked out by his faster Aprilia.
“It’s not about who is at fault. practice start is to practice the start, you arrive at the first corner trying to disengage, so you brake late.
“Pecco was in the middle, very slow, I don’t know. I tried to avoid him, I went outside, but I gave him two bikes [of space]. I don’t even pass ‘close-close’.
“When I saw the crash [I thought] maybe I ‘crashed’ him, I don’t know. But then I saw the replay and there was plenty of room. I think he got scared or something. He grabbed the front brake and locked the front tyre, but it was crazy.”
In response to Bagnaia’s suggestion that he should have overtaken him by darting away from the racing line and moving to the inside, Vinales replied: “How can I go [on the] inside?”
