Francesco Bagnaia “disappointed”, “same problem” - Mugello Sprint slower than 2024

After Sunday at Aragon provided hope for Francesco Bagnaia, it was back down to earth in his home Italian MotoGP Sprint as the same problems he has been blighted by all season returned.

Unable to run the bigger 355mm front disc that seemed to make a difference at Aragon due to the lower braking stress at Mugello, the Italian was nonetheless optimistic of front-end progress in other areas.

Qualifying was promising, Bagnaia splitting Ducati team-mate Marc Marquez and second in the championship Alex Marquez to start from the middle of the front row.

Bagnaia’s chances of a sixth Mugello win in succession were then boosted when he snatched the holeshot while Marc fumbled with a launch control issue and had to fight back from seventh.

But it was a false dawn for Bagnaia, who struggled with the front of his GP25 as soon as the tyre began losing maximum grip. 

Overtaken by both Marquez brothers on lap 2 of 11, he had his hands full keeping KTM’s Maverick Vinales at bay in the closing stages.

“Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed because I just would like it to give something more to the fans, but I was unable,” Bagnaia told MotoGP.com. “The others, Marc and Alex, were faster.

“I just tried to close the gap every single lap. But every time I was close, the front was closing everywhere.

“So it's more or less the same, it’s a rewind of all the other Sprints where I was third.

“I just need to improve, understand what to do, where to improve and hope to find a solution because it's already almost half of the season and I'm still having the same problem.”

Adding to Bagnaia’s frustration was that, unlike the other frontrunners, he was slower than one year ago (same tyres), while a repeat of his 2024 Sprint time would also have been enough for victory on Saturday.

“It's a shame, because I was the only one with slower pace compared to last year when I won the Sprint,” he said. “But it is what it is.”

* 19 riders finished the Sprint in both 2024 and 2025.
Jorge Martin, Joan Mir, Enea Bastianini, Fabio Quartararo and Miguel Oliveira did not finish in 2024. Brad Binder, Johann Zarco and Pedro Acosta in 2025.

Looking ahead to Sunday’s main MotoGP race, Bagnaia fears that a longer distance will mean the front is even more of a problem.

“With new tyres I much better. I feel that I can fight, I can be competitive. [But] as soon as the front tyres start to drop, I have a lot of problems.

“It's difficult to turn, difficult to let the bike close the line [understeer].

"I'm struggling a lot to do what I know I can do. I know that I can enter faster. I know I can do something that I'm seeing others are doing, but I cannot do it."

Nonetheless: "The podium is the target [tomorrow], but it will not be easy because I'm struggling quite a lot also to [finish] third.

“But we need to do it. We need to give something more to the fans, and I would like to find something tomorrow morning, find a solution and then see what will happen.”

On Thursday, Bagnaia - who has now slipped 98 points from Marc Marquez and 63 behind Alex in the world championship - warned, “If I’m not competitive here, there’s a problem...”