Francesco Bagnaia started and finished the main race of the MotoGP Spanish GP in third place – just like he had yesterday in the Sprint race at Jerez.
The Ducati Lenovo rider fought with fellow Ducati rider Marc Márquez until the latter crashed, but afterwards didn’t have the pace to hold off Álex Márquez (BK8 Gresini/Ducati) or Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha).
Struggling to overtake, Bagnaia admitted at the press conference that he wasn’t happy at all and stressed the urgency of improving:
– I’m not happy with races like this. I couldn’t do anything again. I was quite happy in the first three/four laps – my pace was very good. But, as soon as I arrived to Fabio, I didn’t have any chances to overtake. Every time I was getting closer in turns 7, 8, 11, 12, I was losing a lot. The front was locking a lot and I was losing it everywhere. It’s a shame that it is like this, but it’s the situation right now. Luckly, we have an important test tomorrow, we will work a lot to find a better balance, because right now we are struggling.
The Italian was puzzled by the worse performance at Jerez compared to 2024: ‘It’s just strange that in corners where I was super strong last year, which were corners 11 and 12, I was struggling a lot this season – even more when I was behind. And, looking at Álex, he was super strong like I was last year. So, maybe we need to change something on the bike to change the balance. Tomorrow will be an important day’.