Francesco Bagnaia: “Mugello left a bitter taste in my mouth”

After suffering his first Mugello defeat since 2021, Francesco Bagnaia heads straight to “one of my all-time favourite tracks”, Assen, for this weekend’s Dutch MotoGP.

Unable to use the larger front brake discs that revived his Aragon form due to Mugello’s flowing layout, Bagnaia nonetheless stepped up and came within 0.059s of depriving team-mate Marc Marquez of pole position.

Third in the Sprint race was then followed by a rousing early battle against both Marquez brothers in his home grand prix.

But as front grip faded, so did Bagnaia, and he painfully lost the final place on the podium to fellow GP25 rider Fabio di Giannantonio in the closing laps.

“The Mugello weekend left a bitter taste in my mouth,” Bagnaia admitted.

“In the race I did everything I could to get in front and keep up with the pace of the strongest riders, but after the first few laps, I no longer had confidence at the front and had to pick up the pace."

Bagnaia claimed his first grand prix win at Assen in the Moto3 class in 2016 and has been unbeaten around the 4.5km venue in the last three GPs, also winning last year's Sprint. 

“We’re back on track at Assen, one of my all-time favourite tracks, where I hope to be able to make the most of all our strengths and get back into the fight for the top positions.”

Bagnaia - who has a tattoo of the Dutch circuit on his arm - returns with only one win to his name in 2025, at COTA, after Marc Marquez crashed out of the lead.

Even a return to winning form at Assen won’t shift Bagnaia’s position in the standings this weekend since he is currently 110 points behind Marc and 70 adrift of Gresini’s Alex Marquez, riding a GP24.

The flowing nature of the Dutch track means the larger 355mm front discs are again not expected to be an option.