Francesco Bagnaia says final weekend’s French Grand Prix marked the primary time he had “felt quick” on a MotoGP bike since 2024, suggesting he might have had a breakthrough.
Bagnaia’s well-documented 2025 struggles carried into the beginning of the present season, with the Italian failing to complete larger than ninth in a Sunday race throughout the opening 4 rounds.
Ducati’s aggressive decline added to his troubles, with Bagnaia and his team-mates discovering it more and more exhausting to take the combat to MotoGP’s new benchmark Aprilia in 2026.
Nonetheless, a constructive in-season check at Jerez appeared to characterize a transparent step in the correct route, a development that was carried into Le Mans final weekend. After placing his manufacturing facility Ducati on pole place in qualifying, Bagnaia claimed a podium within the dash and was working second within the grand prix till he crashed at Flip 3.
Footage of the aftermath circulated on social media, displaying the two-time MotoGP champion kicking a hay bale and a cone earlier than returning to the paddock on a scooter.
Talking on the eve of the Catalan Grand Prix, Bagnaia admitted that the frustration stemmed from what he noticed as a missed alternative to attain an enormous haul of factors and switch round his marketing campaign.
“Certainly, I must apply my kicks a bit as a result of I virtually crashed once more,” he joked, earlier than including: “When, for the primary time after a season-and-a-half, you’re quick quick, you’re combating for a place once more, you’ll be able to overtake and you’ll be able to really feel the restrict, and also you crash… F**ok, I used to be actually upset, and I am nonetheless upset.”
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Crew
Photograph by: Gold and Goose Pictures / LAT Photos / by way of Getty Photos
Bagnaia largely shouldered the responsibility for his race-ending crash, despite the fact that he admitted that the identical subject that led to his DNF in Jerez resurfaced in France final weekend.
Having beforehand been ambiguous about what precisely the issue was, the 29-year-old now clarified that it wasn’t associated to a technical fault.
“We discovered [the issue], and it’ll not occur once more. But it surely was not a technical drawback, so every little thing is completed.
“It was a matter of feeling and we understood [the problem]. It won’t occur once more.”
Bagnaia hopes the low-grip floor at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will assist him perceive if he could be aggressive in all kinds of circuits.
“After the Jerez check, we discovered a route that labored very effectively in Le Mans. We began working extra on the small print and, session by session, we have been enhancing,” he defined.
“We have been additionally in a aggressive race. Usually, this season, we’re at a weak level. This monitor is a bit completely different in comparison with [Le Mans in terms of] the extent of grip and the format.
“I believe it was all the time good for me, however we have to perceive if we could be aggressive from the beginning and attempt to use the efficiency we had in Le Mans. Additionally, as a result of final yr it was one of many worst for me. I used to be final or near final in all of the classes. The yr earlier than, I gained each races.
“I hope that we discovered a method and dealing effectively, like we did in Le Mans, may assist us.”
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