Michelin attests tyres not to blame for Bagnaia’s sprint woes

MotoGP tyre manufacturer Michelin has found no issue with the rear tyre used by Francesco Bagnaia during his troubled sprint race at the Red Bull Ring yesterday.

Bagnaia complained of a mysterious issue at the rear of his Ducati during the race, which began with huge wheelspin when the lights turned green. He ultimately retired after dropping to last position.

After the race, he told reporters: “I’m just waiting for the engineers to explain to me what happened.”

While there has been no word to the media from Ducati, Michelin did issue a short statement to the press on Sunday morning.

“⁠Bagnaia’s tyres were manufactured just two months ago, at the same time as the others, on the same machines and using the same raw materials and semi-finished products,” it read. “No anomalies were detected.

“We analysed the data with the team and, particularly during the first four laps, the levels of temperature, grip and wheelspin were identical to those of the other Ducati bikes.”

The French company said it would continue to look for answers when it returned to base, but hinted that it could also have been an issue with Ducati’s GP25 rather than the rubber.

“We will continue the analysis once we are back at headquarters in order to identify the origin of the oscillations, both from the bike side and from the tyre side.”

Bagnaia will have a chance to put things right in this afternoon’s Austrian Grand Prix, for which he will line up in third place once again.

If he can avoid another disastrous start from the dirty side of the track, the double world champion’s cause will be helped somewhat by the fact that his team-mate Marc Marquez starts one spot behind him on the grid.

In other good news for Bagnaia, front-row rival Alex Marquez will be hamstrung by a long-lap penalty (dating back to an incident in the Czech GP) and polesitter Marco Bezzecchi will only be a threat if he can find more pace than he did in the sprint.