Pecco Bagnaia fought a determined race as the 2021 season kicked off in Qatar, battling till the dying seconds to claim third in an almost photo-finish. 

Launching from pole with blistering speed Bagnaia dominated the first half of the 22-lap contest due to the power of his Desmosedici, holding off teammate Jack Miller and the Pramac duo of Johann Zarco and Jorge Martin in he process. 

The Italian came under fire from a somewhat unexpected source on lap 14 as Maverick Viñales positioned his Yamaha firmly in the fight, ultimately losing the lead on the next revolution. Bagnaia soon had fellow Ducati man Zarco for company, as the Pramac rider set his sights on stealing second, a task he accomplished two laps later. 

Circulating in fourth for the final laps, thanks to a resurgent Joan Mir, Pecco saw his opportunity on the final corner as the Suzuki went wide. Utilising his Ducati’s top-speed and a useful slipstream from Zarco ahead, the pair swept past the world champion down the Doha straight, securing the podium on the line.  

"I'm thrilled to start the 2021 Championship with a podium” Bagnaia exclaimed. “it was my first race with the Ducati Lenovo Team, and I'm coming from a rather difficult end to the 2020 season. 

I think that we started in the best way possible, with the pole and with this podium, because if I look at last season I started with a lot of crashes in the second part of the season so starting again like this is the best.

“I'm very happy with the work done at home, in this winter, because I was very focused on improve myself to adapt better to this bike and to improve on my gym session or training session. I did a step in front, and then really happy with the work done with the team, we have arrived prepared here.

“Today I tried really hard to keep the lead and close all the doors on Viñales. Unfortunately, I think I made the wrong strategy and wore the tyres down too much at the start. After seven laps, I started to struggle a lot, especially on the rear, and I think that was also due to the different track conditions today compared to the last few days. We still have one more race here in Qatar, so we will try next Sunday again.

“Now we have another race here next week, and we have more data to look at, because it is really difficult to work for the race, during a weekend here, for the conditions that we have. Just in FP2 and FP4 you can work a bit, but in the FP2 we have to get into Q2 and so we had to make the time attack and in the FP4, is not the correct hour so it's really difficult. Now that we have this data, for sure, we can improve more in the second race.

"We have to concentrate more than the second part of the race. We need something to improve the dry grip, because I was losing a lot of time when I was pick up the bike and compared to a session with new tyres, we lose a lot there when the bikes start to drop. I will try to make something different to have more traction in the exit because I think that on the brakes, I'm good. I'm not losing time with used or new tyres, and in the corner speed too. So, I just need to concentrate on the exit, because there our engine will help us. I think that today, if I was not losing this time in the exit, it was more possible to stay close to Maverick, because I was stronger on the brakes and in the entry, and I was just seeing that he was faster in the exit.

Reflecting on the last lap battle, the Italian continued “I took the risk in the last lap and make the best exit possible to achieve this podium, because after a race like this, to lose the podium like this was no good, so I tried all to make the best exit possible and I make it. It was impossible to overtake Johann or Joan before, because they exit very, very, very well there and I had to work on it because if I make these types of exit, every lap, it would be better for sure.”

“I start to struggle with the rear grip but I was not expecting it,” Bagnaia concluded “because in the test or in these days, I was not having these type of problems, but the condition today were different. So I think it's normal that the grip had changed. Maybe if it was like yesterday this pace was good to win, but I just can be happy with the work done, because it's a podium, and my second podium in the world championship, in my first race with his team so nothing better.