Arriving At Misano With High Expectation, Bagnaia: In General, I Am Quite Competitive In This Track

Francesco Bagnaia (Instagram @ducaticorse)

JAKARTA - Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia arrived in his hometown in Misano with high expectations after three consecutive wins in previous races.

At the Austrian GP, Bagnaia reaped the ninth victory in MotoGP's career and the fifth success of the season.

He became Ducati's third rider to win five or more of a MotoGP season after Casey totaling 10 wins in 2007 and 2008, and Andrea Dovizioso who recorded six wins in 2017.

With this hatrick, Bagnaia followed in the footsteps of ferocity as a Ducati rider who first achieved a similar achievement in 2007 and 2008.

Towards the San Marino GP, he has the opportunity to become the first Ducati rider to win four consecutive victories in MotoGP class.

"I'm very happy to race at Misano this weekend. The team has gone through a very positive moment. So I hope we can entertain our fans on our hometown track," Bagnaia said as quoted by Antara, Thursday.

"In general, I'm pretty competitive on this track."

This Italian rider had a record of four podiums in his 11 visits to Misano during the third draw in Moto2 2017 and won this race in 2018 after starting from pole position.

Then at MotoGP Pecco, who became GP San Marino 2020, then perfected it with a win from pole at GP San Marino the following year.

At GP Emilia Romagna last year, she again got a pole position but fell during the race and had to hand over the world title to Fabio Quartararo.

"In the last few Grand Prixs, I feel more comfortable on top of Desmosedici GP. So I am confident that I can find the same positive feelings here and be among the protagonists this weekend," said Bagnaia.

Thanks to three consecutive wins, Bagnaia is in control of his position to third place in the standings with a collection of 156 points, following Aleix Espargaro from Aprilia with a difference of 12 points, and 44 points from the top of the standings held by Fabio Quartararo from Yamaha.

Meanwhile, Quartararo, after finishing P2 in Austria, trained hard for Misano to maintain his position and maintain hopes of defending the title when this season leaves seven races.

"Obviously, I still have strong memories of winning the world title here last year, but we have to focus on the title this season," Quartararo said.

"We started the final third of the season, which has always been tough... I have been training constantly to make sure I am at peak," said the rider who finished P2 twice at Misano in 2019 and 2021.