In the MotoGP race in India last September, Francesco Bagnaia made a mistake and suffered a crash when he was in second place ahead of Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati). This allowed the Spanish rider to significantly close the gap to the championship lead held by the Ducati man. His crew chief, Cristian Gabarrini, believes it was a crucial incident.
The engineer told La Gazzetta dello Sport that if Bagnaia hadn’t crashed in India, the current situation would be much more encouraging for the reigning champion and not as much for Martín: ‘The crash in India weighed heavily on us; Pecco had caught him, overtaken him, and left him behind, and the other had exploded. Without the crash, we would be talking about something else; there would still be a significant advantage, and Martín would have a lower crest. This is the reality’.
Gabarrini clarified that he likes Martín’s attitude: ‘I like Martín, the way he is, always combative, aggressive, and positive. But it’s natural for him to push things in his favor and try to put pressure on Pecco’.