Impossible to think about winning MotoGP title after Italian GP

Francesco Bagnaia feels “it’s impossible to think about winning the championship” after fading to fourth place at his home Italian Grand Prix in Mugello.

After a fantastic start which saw Bagnaia fighting for the lead with Marc Marquez and Alex Marquez, the Italian rider began to drop back, before eventually losing the final podium spot to VR46 Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio in the closing laps.

Marc Marquez won the race from his brother Alex, while Bagnaia finished fourth – and is now 110 points back in the MotoGP riders’ world championship.

“Like this, it’s impossible to think about winning the championship,” Bagnaia told the media post-race.

“If I’m doing races like this, if we are not changing something on the bike and the bike remains the same, I think that it’s difficult to think about the championship.

“So we just need to do something different, hoping to find the solution.

“I think the potential is there. I know that I can fight for the win, I know that what I did in the first six, seven laps is something that I can do always. I just need to feel good with my bike.”

Bagnaia has been struggling with his bike since the start of the season, in particular suffering from problems with the front end of his Ducati.

“I was quite confident the first part of the race, I was feeling good,” he said. “And then after six laps, the front started to drop. I needed to slow down because I was risking to crash.

“The problem is that this season it’s always like this. I cannot do what I want on the bike. I need to follow what the bike has to do, and when I try to do what I want, I crash, or almost.

“Today, I was almost on the ground in the last corner when I tried just to do the same line as I did always.”

He added: “From the first race, it is like this. I maybe start well, then I do all the race watching the brothers, what they are doing, hoping a mistake from them to maybe have a chance to overtake.

“But like this it’s not possible, because I’m there, stuck in between seven, eight tenths, then I try to push to catch back, I arrive to two, three tenths, and then I need to slow down again because the front is starting to understeer everywhere.

“It changes in a lap. You feel okay, you are pushing, you are there, close. You can have a chance, you can overtake. And then from a lap, you start to have understeer, movement, and it’s impossible to be competitive like you were in the first laps.”