Bagnaia apologises, 'I was wrong, it was my mistake'

The factory Ducati star, who arrives at round three with just a single world championship point, struggled to make the most of new tyres at the bumpy Termas de Rio Hondo circuit.

Finding himself in danger of missing the top ten cut for direct access to Qualifying 2, the reigning title runner-up then caught a pack of slow-moving riders looking for a tow in the closing stages of FP2.

Making his displeasure clear as he passed, Bagnaia later accelerated out of the final corner but then pulled off the racing line and appeared to hit the brakes, in an attempt to force any followers to pass.

Eventual pole position qualifier Aleix Espargaro, watching from the pits, was among those left open-mouthed at the move, due to the potential consequences had a rider been close behind at the time.

Meanwhile, former double world champion Casey Stoner defended Bagnaia:

The 'evasive action' didn't help Bagnaia's fortunes as he failed to make the top ten cut and went on to finish just fourth in Qualifying 1, leaving him 14th on the grid, after which he apologised for his earlier actions.

"I want to say sorry, but when you are nervous you make mistakes. I made a mistake, and I was wrong," said Bagnaia, who escaped punishment.

"The moment I entered the Stewards room, I just apologised for what I have done, and they understood my situation, just telling me try to be more careful and try to be more smart in that situation.

"Because I was too nervous, looking at riders that normally complain a lot about Moto3 riders, and then they are doing the same. So I was a bit nervous, but it was my mistake."

'It's more or less the situation of Austin last year'

Bagnaia, later promoted to 13th on the grid due to a penalty for team-mate Jack Miller, is now planning to follow a similar setting change to Austin last season to try and get more comfortable over the bumps in warm-up.

"With used tyres, I was quite confident to do a good job, because I was quite fast, I did a 1'39.3 with 16 laps on the tyres. So the feeling was quite good with used tyres," he said.

"Then we put new tyres and I struggled a lot to set a good fast lap time. I just improved three tenths, so that's something that is not enough.

"It's true that today I was slow in qualifying, I can't say something different. But I'm struggling a bit with the bumps, I'm struggling a bit with new tyres in general. That was the main problem.

"We're working on it, and we've already seen something to change for tomorrow.

"It's more or less the situation of Austin last year, that was very bumpy and was critical, the situation. So before the qualifying in Austin we did something, that we will do tomorrow, that for me will be a good thing, to help me be a bit more constant over the bumps," explained Bagnaia, who took pole position and finished third in the COTA race.

"Because looking at the other bikes, at the setting of the other Ducatis, their setting is more of a 'safety setting', and we will go more in this direction to have less aggressive reaction from my bike.

"I'm managing quite well the rear tyre. The problem is that with new tyres I'm slow."

The top Ducatis on Saturday were Jorge Martin (Pramac) and Luca Marini (VR46) who qualified second and third.