Ducati faced three different issues while struggling to Czech GP sprint victory

The sprint race for the Czech Grand Prix weekend seemed to be a foregone conclusion. Once Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia got the lead, there didn’t seem to be any opportunity for a change at the front. 

That all changed, however, when Bagnaia suddenly slowed at half distance to let Pedro Acosta by and ended up giving away additional track positions to Enea Bastianini and Fabio Quartararo. While Bagnaia continued to lose positions, Marquez was soon at it too, evidently rolling off the throttle to let Acosta by for the lead. 

It soon became obvious that this was to do with tyre pressures and the rule that across a certain percentage of the race, the tyre pressure must remain above a set threshold – in a sprint race, it’s 30% of the laps completed. 

Marquez managed to recover to take the lead back with a lap and a half to go, but ‘Pecco’ finished an unhappy seventh. To add further complications into the mix, the race winner was under investigation for his tyre pressures falling below the required value, while Bagnaia wasn’t. After the race, Marquez explained what the problem was that led him to back off. 

“On some race tracks, the engineers always try to be on the limit of the pressure [regulation] because we have a bit more performance sometimes, not always,” said the current championship leader.  

“Sometimes, we want to increase the pressures because it helps a bit in other aspects. Today, the fact is [that the situation was caused by] two different things. Yesterday, we didn’t ride in dry [conditions] and the new surface is super good – there’s a lot of grip, but we are riding in a different way. 

“The rear grip is even too much and then you cannot force the front. All these things make the life of the engineers a bit more difficult. I appreciate them because they always try to find the best [solution], and the easiest thing for the engineer is to increase the pressure, then the rider will do [the rest] – but they are always trying to give us the best performance. Today was very, very on the limit. We are talking about peanuts, but just when I take the slipstream, I was already inside [the regulation].” 

Bagnaia had an entirely different problem, which when analysed showed that he didn’t need to let anyone by to begin with. The Italian, understandably miserable when speaking to the media, explained the technical glitch that cost him the podium. 

“Honestly, I’m not the correct one to answer the question of what happened to me but, unluckily, I’m only one who needs to put his face [here],” said Bagnaia after the sprint. 

“I was there, just trying to manage the situation after seeing that my front tyre pressure was going under the limit, trying to put charge on the front. 

“Unluckily I didn’t, so I let past Pedro [Acosta] in the wrong position [on the circuit] and wasn’t expecting Enea [Bastianini] who overtook me with a contact and Fabio [Quartararo] overtook me too – so I completely messed [up] the situation. 

“Then I wasn’t able to stop the pressure going down, so I was there following others, to let the pressure go up but I didn’t [manage it] so I was sure 100% to get a penalty. Then I arrived in the box and looked at the screen and saw that I wasn’t under investigation. 

“I wasn’t understanding the situation, then I checked the telemetry and saw from the second lap I was over the limit, so we had a dashboard problem today that normally doesn’t tend to happen, but in my situation, this season [these things] tend to happen.” 

There was a final postscript to the whole saga in the form of an official announcement from MotoGP promoter Dorma, which read: “The post-race investigation into the tyre pressures for riders #93, #42 and #79 quickly revealed an incorrect minimum pressure setting in the race direction warning system.” 

“Therefore, no further action nor investigation was necessary. All riders complied with the correct minimum pressure. This control system is separate to any warning system used by teams and is not visible to teams or riders during the session. Each team controls their own parameters, and the warnings sent their riders’ dashboards regarding minimum tyre pressures.” 

In effect, then, there were three different issues. One each for Marquez, Bagnaia and race control itself. Hopefully, Sunday’s main race will have no such confusion to impact the race result.