Francesco Bagnaia has “beautiful way of riding” but “without weapons” in braking struggles
Francesco Bagnaia’s front-end troubles returned in the Italian MotoGP as he lost a home podium to Fabio di Giannantonio.
Francesco Bagnaia’s Italian MotoGP turned from fireworks to frustration as the reigning world champion was pushed off the podium by not only the Marquez brothers, but also fellow Ducati GP25 rider Fabio di Giannantonio.
Bagnaia lit up the opening laps of Sunday’s MotoGP race, going bar-to-bar with team-mate Marc Marquez in a thrilling home showdown at Mugello.
But just as in Saturday’s Sprint - where he faded to 2.5s behind Marquez for third - Bagnaia lost the same proportional time to cross the line five seconds down on victory, in fourth place.
The final blow came on the penultimate lap, when di Giannantonio launched a move that denied Bagnaia a place on the podium in front of his home crowd.
Starting eighth, the VR46 rider sliced through the field to take third in what was arguably his most impressive performance since switching to the GP25.
“Pecco has a beautiful way of riding the bike. For sure he has been the benchmark for us in Ducati the last four years,” said Di Giannantonio, when asked about Bagnaia’s predicament.
“His main strongest point is the braking, but his little weak point is when he loses the braking, he is a bit like without weapons, let’s say.
“This year it seems that he is struggling a little bit with the setup of the bike to feel free to do what he wants to do with the bike in the braking.
“So on the last part of the race, when the front tyre starts to move a lot on used tyres and maybe you have to use other areas of the bike, today he was suffering a little bit and I took the opportunity.
“Just this. I don't know exactly about the setup [differences], but that is what I was seeing from the bike.”
Marc Marquez, who broke free from Bagnaia and brother Alex to take control of the race on lap nine, echoed the view that his factory team-mate is giving everything he can.
“About Pecco, it’s true that he’s trying. He’s trying everything,” said Marc.
“As we saw today, he pushed a lot in the beginning. Maybe even too much. When I was following him, he was pushing a lot the tyres.
“Maybe it’s the only way to do it, because when you are struggling, you are fighting against the bike. You get more tired and the lap time is slower.
“But Pecco has been fast during all of this weekend. Today he had problems in the last part of the race, maybe with that soft rear tyre. The tyre consumption I think was high for everybody.”
But Marquez also suggested that, while Bagnaia was relying on braking, he had switched focus to corner speed: "[Pecco] was braking very hard and very late, while I was focusing more on corner speed."
Bagnaia’s only win of the year so far came at COTA – after Marc crashed out – and he is now a daunting 110 points behind his team-mate in the world championship.
Bagnaia also sits 70 points behind Alex Marquez, who holds second for Gresini.
A switch to larger 355mm front brake discs offered hope for Bagnaia at Aragon, but the flowing nature of Mugello (and this weekend’s Assen round) forced him back on the standard 340mm.
The good news was that Bagnaia was that Bagnaia was able to challenge Marc for pole on new tyres in qualifying, losing out by just 0.059s.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
