Nepo's prep worked, it's not that Ding is bothered by the pace it's that Nepo who is the genuine #2 in the world, prepped well with white and won. Also Carlsen is a special case, every super GM has admitted that there is a psychological hurdle to pass against him because you can't make even minor inaccuracies against him, you also have to be very careful about every move and their direct or indirect consequences when it comes to endgames. That doesn't apply to Ding, Ding is a more normal Super GM, he is roughly equal to Nepo, Caruana, Wesley So or Nakamura, you can play a game that isn't perfect against them and still get a draw or a win.What I mean is that from what I remember Nepo blundered a game away against Carlsen and then also blundered horribly in the following games, whereas here he had a terrible blunder against Ding last game, but now he's following it up with an impressive performance, where he just completely outplayed Ding, without much thinking.