Ducati confident Pecco Bagnaia’s Assen MotoGP form genuine

Ducati MotoGP boss Davide Tardozzi says the marque is “really crossing our fingers” for Pecco Bagnaia at the Dutch Grand Prix but believes he “found something” on Friday.

Double world champion Pecco Bagnaia’s struggles across the 2025 MotoGP season have been well documented, as he has so far yet been unable to find the front end feeling he needs to exploit his riding style.

Having won 11 grands prix last year on his way to narrowly missing out on the title, Bagnaia so far only has one victory to his credit in 2025 - at COTA - and is 110 points off the championship lead.

After a disappointing weekend at Mugello in which he was expected to be more competitive having won the Italian Grand Prix for the last three years, a rebound was hoped for at Assen.

Also winning the Dutch Grand Prix over the last three years, Bagnaia has looked competitive since first practice, showing strong long run pace on Friday afternoon.

And on Saturday morning, he qualified second on the grid - 0.028s from pole - and ahead of team-mate and championship leader Marc Marquez in fourth.

Speaking prior to FP2 on Saturday, Tardozzi said: “Yeah, I think what he said is true [about making a step on Friday].

“I think Pecco yesterday found something and he’s been very competitive with the used tyre.

“We’re really crossing our fingers to have him back here in Assen fighting for the win. This morning will be very important to see if we made the last change in a positive way.

“We made a last setting change last night. If it works, I’m very confident he will be very competitive.”

Bagnaia is yet to score a sprint win in 2025, with Marc Marquez taking eight victories on Saturday and Alex Marquez taking the other one.

Only twice this year has Bagnaia outqualified his team-mate, with the last time coming at the British Grand Prix where Marc Marquez was also fourth on the grid.

He failed to capitalise on this at Silverstone, with Bagnaia fading to sixth in the sprint and crashing out of the grand prix.

While Bagnaia has looked competitive at Assen so far, it remains to be seen if Ducati has been able to unlock anything for the Italian in sprint races.

So far this year, Bagnaia has complained of struggling to ride the GP25 how he wants when it is fitted with the sprint fuel tank.