Bagnaia praises new Ducati after claiming MotoGP win in Portugal

On the first race weekend of the new MotoGP season, Bagnaia won the inaugural sprint race on Saturday, before also taking first place a day later.

The defending world champion finished ahead of Maverick Vinales and fellow Italian Marco Bezzecchi, and expressed his delight with his new bike at the post-race press conference.

"We worked so well on the tests that everything was prepared for the race, we were so on the limit," he said. "Compare that to two years ago and last year, the race time was so much faster.

"It was quite tough, the tyres were working so perfectly... I'm happy, everything went perfectly. This new bike suits very well my riding style, better than the old one, so we are fighting in a good direction."

#TissotSprint winner Race Winner It’s the perfect start to @peccobagnaia ’s title defence at the end of the #PortugueseGP ?? #MotoGP pic.twitter.com/ctmTPws6d3

— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) March 26, 2023

Bezzecchi was surprised with his third-place finish to begin his second season after being the best rookie in MotoGP last year with 111 points, more than the other four rookie riders combined (Fabio Di Giannantonio: 24; Raul Fernandez: 14; Remy Gardner: 13 and Darryn Binder: 12).

"I am very happy. It's always nice to have some good results," the 24-year-old said. "Honestly, I wasn't expecting this because it's a track where I've never been so fast in Moto2 or in the previous year. Also, last year I was very slow, but this year I made a step and I'm very happy.

"The race was fantastic. I was able to escape the group behind me, and I was trying to catch Maverick but he was a little bit faster than me, especially at the end. But this gave me the possibility to escape, to have a good gap, and finally to get this podium."

Spaniard Vinales held on for second place, and is optimistic of competing at the front again in next week's Argentinian Grand Prix.

"I've been quite fast in Argentina for all the years," he said. "I don't know, I don't want to put anything on my head. I will go there, do the job, take out the maximum of the bike and then we will see.