Francesco Bagnaia finished the MotoGP Aragon GP Sprint race in ninth place. It was a hard-fought point for the Ducati rider, who lost the championship lead to Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati) after facing similar difficulties to those that hindered him during the first free practice session.
The Italian told the press that he had raised concerns about the dirty asphalt conditions the day before: ‘First of all, yesterday at the safety commission the first thing I asked was, «please clean the starting grid». Maybe they did it, but then it rained again, so maybe they didn’t do it again’.
Seeing the dirt on the grid area, Bagnaia tried unsuccessfully to mitigate potential problems: ‘As soon as I arrived to the starting grid, I saw how dirty it was and I was already trying to prevent what happened by releasing the clutch a bit slower. I was just lucky that Álex [Márquez] managed to avoid me, because otherwise it could be very dangerous. And from there I just started trying not to lose too many positions. I didn’t lose too many positions, because the luck is that is not that long from the starting the grid to the first corner’.
And right on the first lap, the 2022 and 2023 champion realized that the bike had a problem: ‘I got to turn 5 trying to overtake Miguel Oliveira, and as soon as I got there I understood that something was not working normally. The same thing that happened yesterday morning, happened today. It’s out of our control, we can’t do anything about it. You can be precise and perfect in everything, but when things like this happen, they happen. So you cannot control it’.
Bagnaia declined to clarify the origin of the problem but assured that it was not related to his riding, the bike, or the team. Regarding the glance he gave to the Michelin technician after the Sprint race, he downplayed the situation: ‘I just said «hi»’.
The tyre pressure and temperature parameters were also ideal. When asked if it was a similar situation to what affected Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati) at last year’s Qatar GP, Bagnaia replied: ‘Last year in Qatar, it also happened to me on Saturday. So it’s similar, but it’s out of our control, you cannot know what this is’.
Despite the scenario, the Italian explained that under normal conditions, he could fight at the top: ‘For me it’s quite easy, we just need a normal situation, and with a normal situation we can fight. My only goal was to start well and try to block Marc [Márquez], but nothing worked from the start’.
