MotoGP riders brace for “race of survival” in Catalan GP

The Ducati rider missed out on pole position to Espargaro by 0.031s, but already anticipates the Barcelona race to be a different challenge due to the hot and slippery track conditions in the high temperatures, which will make tyre conservation over the race distance the key test.

Aprilia’s Espargaro demonstrated eye-catching race pace in practice, while topping three of the four practice sessions, as his RS-GP bike could find better mechanical grip in the conditions compared to his rivals.

While Bagnaia doesn’t believe there’s a huge deficit in outright pace, he predicts the major challenge will be to sustain a strong pace over a race distance without suffering a drastic rear tyre performance drop.

“I don’t know how to beat him [Espargaro], but I think that the key will be to be smart with the rear tyre for the whole race,” Bagnaia, who has won two of the last three races, said.

“It is true that you can go fast in the first laps but then you have to be constant until the finish of the race and if you push at the start you can’t be constant until the finish of the race.

“It will be a race of survival because you have to be very, very smart on acceleration.

“We did different work compared to the others in FP4 to see if the tyre would be OK and I am quite happy with the result of FP4 of my pace.”

Reigning MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo agreed with Bagnaia’s assessment and also feels he has the speed to fight for the win, but is wary of making his rear tyre last the distance.

“I think we have the potential and we have the speed, we are not the only one to have the speed, but I feel we have the potential [too],” Quartararo, who starts the Catalan GP from third place, said.

“Everybody knows here how critical is the tyre consumption, the rear grip, and after Moto2 [race] we…