MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 5 / MAY 18-20, 2018
BUGATTI CIRCUIT / LE MANS, FRANCE
P88
within three seconds at the end.
It was his teammate—the amaz-
ing rookie Joan Mir. The reigning
Moto3 champion had pushed
past both Red Bull KTMs after
finishing the first lap sixth, then
patiently tailed Marcel Schrot-
ter's Dynavolt Kalex before mov-
ing past firmly on lap 15. This
gave him a clear first podium,
leaving the still-battered Schrot-
ter was an untroubled fourth.
"With a better start, I think I
could have been fighting the top
two guys," the 20-year-old bright
The Rossi protégé was
chased all the way, from the first
corner to the last, by EG-VDS
Kalex rider Alex Marquez. It was
a remorseless battle, the Span-
iard only slacking off in the final
laps, to finish less than three
seconds adrift. "Overall it was
a good weekend, but I am not
100 percent satisfied because
I couldn't fight for the win," he
said.
The pair had outdistanced the
back, but the Spaniard's slow-
ing pace let third place close to
with a start-to-finish win.
It was his first pole in the
class, and he made the most
of it, with a perfect launch. But
while it was a dominant perfor-
mance, he couldn't slacken his
pace or lose focus for a second.
"The race was tough. I tried to
impose my pace, but also to
avoid using up the rear tire in the
first laps, to be competitive in
the last laps," he said. Rookie of
the year last year, Bagnaia, has
now won three of the first five
races.
Bagnaia (42) put on a masterclass in Moto2.
