Francesco Bagnaia says rain on the last lap of the Moto൩GP Japanese Grand Prix sprint led to him slowing right down and almost cost him victory.

The world champion led from second on the grid for the first two laps of the Motegi sprint, but was overtaken by🎉 poleman Pedro Acosta on the thir🌌d tour and looked set to stay in second to the chequered flag.

168澳洲5最新开奖结果:But a crash for the Tech3 rider on lap nine of 12 allowed Bagnaia back into the lead, while his ga💦p at the front was 1.3s as he started the final tour courtesy of a big battle behind him between Enea ✨Bastianini and Marc Marquez.

Bagnaia then slowed right down on the finaꦏl lap and was just 0.181s ahead of Bastianini at the c꧑hequered flag.

Explaining what he described as a “risk” on the last lap, Bagnaia told TNT𒐪 Sport: “Finishing first is fant𒅌astic, so I’m very happy.

“I took a risk on the last laꦕp by maybe slowing down a bit too much, but everything was under control. So, very happy.

“Just because in the last lap it started to raඣin a bit and when I saw I was with 1.3♎s of gap starting the last lap, I said ‘Ok, I have margin, I can slow down by a second’. And I did it and it was ok.”

He added: “I 🦩think we w𒉰orked really good compared to Mandalika, where on the first day I started struggling and it was difficult to improve my performance.

“But on this track from the start of the weekend in FP1 I felt much better and today the conditions were not the easiest ones, because of the rain and🐷 some wet patches.”

In p🌳arc ferme, Bagnaia also reveal✅ed that he had to complete the race on a lower power map to save fuel because he burned up more on the sighting lap trying to understand the conditions before the start.

“We had to sacrifice a bit of performance during the race to und🥂erstand better the conditions before the race without using the map to go slo🌊wer,” he said.

“♐So, I had to do all the race with the map with less power. But everyth⛄ing was fine.”

Bagnaia’s third successive sprint win in 2024 💎and a fourth for Jorge Martin, after the Pramac rider ꦉstarted 11th, has seen the Italian close his championship points deficit to 15.

Acosta’s crash gifted Bagnaia three points more than he was set to score h🗹ad the Tech3 rider gone on to win the sprint.

However, Bagnaia believes he has “to exꦜpect” Acosta to be a rival in the grand prix on ♔Sunday.

“Was very difficult to lead today,” he said.

“Pedro was doing a very good job I think🌜. When I saw him crash I just said to ꦯmyself ‘Ok, you have to push two, three laps to open more the gap the Enea and then control’.

“But he [Acosta] was pushing a lot, taking some margin, but on that lap I think he entered a 🎶bit too fast in that corner. But we have to expect him in the race꧙ tomorrow.”