Bagnaia Confronts Aragon Sprint Challenges: Tyre Troubles and Grid Grievances Unveiled

Francesco Bagnaia identifies reason for struggles in Aragon Sprint | Describes grid as “extremely risky”

Francesco Bagnaia: “This issue isn’t related to our motorcycle, our crew, or myself.”

Francesco Bagnaia avoided discussing 'tyre' issues, but the Italian dismissed nearly every other factor when addressing the reasons behind his disappointing performance in the Aragon MotoGP Sprint race.

Following a challenging beginning from the less favorable side of the circuit, the current MotoGP champion and leader in the standings fell to sixth position.

He quickly overtook Miguel Oliveira and Alex Marquez, positioning himself just behind the leading group of Marc Marquez, Jorge Martin, and Pedro Acosta by the second lap out of eleven.

Yet, rather than gaining on the leading KTM, Bagnaia started to fall behind, ultimately dropping to ninth position by the time they reached the finish line.

Upon returning to the Ducati garage, Bagnaia signaled 'second-time' to his Michelin engineer and, choosing his words thoughtfully, verified to MotoGP.com:

"The same incident as the one from yesterday morning occurred again. It was beyond our control. It doesn't pertain to our motorcycle, our team, or myself."

"This is a possibility. What stands out is that it occurred twice in one weekend. Therefore, I am genuinely optimistic that things will improve by tomorrow."

He subsequently explained, "Right when I hit turn five, I instantly realized something was off, and the situation continued to deteriorate.

The race proved challenging as I faced difficulties navigating the turns and maintaining speed through the mid-corner, leading to slower lap times.

"I'm of the opinion that, in practical terms, I might have competed against Martín, since Marc (Márquez) appears to have an edge over the rest of us in three specific sections of the circuit."

The issues with the front tyre seemed to stem from a frightening, skidding beginning, which Bagnaia attributed to the unclean state of the starting grid. He aligned with racers such as Aleix Espargaro and Alex Rins in voicing concerns over the inadequate cleaning of the track.

"I began the race from the less clean part of the starting line. During the Safety Commission meeting the day before, I explicitly requested, 'Kindly ensure the track and the starting area are cleaned' because I feared it might lead to issues. And indeed, it turned into an issue," he stated.

"I was fortunate that Alex [Marquez] reacted quickly behind me, managing to avoid colliding with me, though it was quite risky."

Late on Saturday, MotoGP announced to the teams that after today's discussions, it has been decided to hold a practice start session on the grid following Sunday's Warm Up.

In a remarkable achievement, Marc Marquez clinched his inaugural Sprint race victory as a member of the Ducati team, dominating every session he participated in throughout the weekend.

"Bagnaia observed, "In certain turns, he's achieving a lean angle that's 4-5 degrees steeper than mine without any front-end loss, which is astounding. He's uniquely capable of this, due to his distinctive way of riding.

"He's the only one executing it among the Ducati riders. However, Marc's capabilities are already known to us. So, for tomorrow, we plan to take a step forward."

Bagnaia's difficulties have resulted in the MotoGP championship advantage swinging back to Jorge Martin by a margin of three points, as they move towards Sunday's grand prix.

Following elevated heat levels and visible blistering on the recently laid Aragon track surface during the Sprint, Michelin declared on Saturday evening that 'the Soft rear tyre option would be removed from the available selections for Sunday's grand prix.'

On Saturday afternoon, all riders opted for the soft compound, and it is now anticipated that they will switch to a medium rear (paired with a medium front) for Sunday's race.

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