Bagnaia horrified by nightmare Catalan GP practice: “I cannot be there”

Factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia was left scratching his head after finishing near the bottom of the timesheets in practice for the Catalan Grand Prix on Friday.

Bagnaia endured a woeful opening day of track running in Barcelona, finishing more than a second off the pace in 21st place, only ahead of Aprilia wildcard Lorenzo Savadori, Tech3 returnee Maverick Vinales and LCR rookie Somkiat Chantra.

There were already alarm bells ringing in the Ducati garage after Bagnaia finished 23rd and second-last in the opening practice of the day, but that was largely attributed to him not running a second set of tyres and having issues with his GP25 bike.

However, when he remained near the rear of the order in the second practice session in the afternoon, concerns grew stronger that something was amiss with the two-time world champion.

With team-mate Marc Marquez finishing a strong third behind the factory KTM riders Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta, and Alex Marquez also performing strongly on a year-old Gresini bike, Bagnaia was the only outlier in an otherwise competitive day for the Borgo Panigale marque.

Asked to sum up his thoughts, a dejected Bagnaia was at a loss to explain the issues that confined him to the rear of the timesheets in practice.

“I could have been very happy telling you what I was feeling yesterday before the start of the weekend], but for some reason, my expectations were wrong,” he said.

“I hoped that there was just something wrong in the morning, that was not working. Then in the afternoon, it was not worse, but similar. So I’m struggling to understand how it could be that difficult. 

“The fact that I’m pushing that hard and I’m 21st between two test riders [Aleix Espargaro and Savadori] – all my respect to them – but I cannot be there.

“So it’s difficult for me to understand. It’s difficult to explain something to the team because I’m pushing really hard, I’m risking a lot with the front, but I’m not fast. I’m very slow, it’s so difficult to understand.”

Arriving into the weekend, Bagnaia had revealed that Ducati had made a key set-up change on his bike in Hungary that had fixed some of the issues that have been plaguing him all season long.

However, it was nothing more than a temporary reprieve for the 28-year-old, who again began to struggle with braking and corner entry in Barcelona.

“My expectation from this race weekend before Balaton was [low] because it’s a track with the lowest grip in the calendar, and with my problems, it could have been tough,” he said.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: David Ramirez / Soccrates / Getty Images

“At the moment [the situation] is what I was expecting before Balaton. But after Balaton I was quite confident that things could have been different, but no [that was not the case].”

He added: “Braking at an angle and first part of traction is where I’m losing a ridiculous amount of time.”

Bagnaia believes he needs “something important” to break into Q2 on Saturday, adding that he would be happy if he can even finish inside the top seven in the sprint.

When asked whether non-bike factors could be contributing to his struggles, a thinly veiled suggestion that confidence or mental pressure might be affecting him, the Italian insisted he was doing everything in his power to turn his campaign around.

“I don’t think it’s my preparation because I feel super good [while] riding,” he stressed. “I don’t feel tired. One thing about me is that I always put myself in front of the problems before judging other things and I tried everything different, riding in a different way, adapting to what the team was asking me to do, but the results of this season are always the same.

“So I’m still trying to adapt and still trying to understand what I could do better, but I cannot ride like others. I have my own riding style that always worked apart from this season. So even if I’m trying to do different things on riding, everything [I do], I lose time. 

“We need to find other solutions that right now we don’t have. So we need to think more about other things and maybe do a reset tonight and see something different tomorrow. 

“But it’s also difficult for me and for the team to understand the situation.”