Pecco Bagnaia finds "a great sign" despite his messy Hungarian MotoGP

Pecco Bagnaia says two errors he made in the MotoGP Hungarian Grand Prix were “a great sign” because his Ducati was more competitive under braking.

The double world champion had endured one of his worst weekends ever in MotoGP at Balaton Park, as he struggled to 14th in qualifying and 13th in the sprint.

Unable to find the front feeling he needed to brake hard, Ducati tried numerous radical set-up changes across the weekend, with that work seemingly paying off on Sunday.

Pecco Bagnaia was only ninth at the chequered flag, but did have to serve a long lap penalty for shortcutting the track, while a mistake late on dropped him behind KTM’s Pol Espargaro.

Pecco Bagnaia optimistic despite difficult Hungarian MotoGP

But an optimistic Bagnaia says the mistakes he made under braking on Sunday were because “I was feeling much better”.

“Much better than all the rest of the weekend,” he said.

“So, still I’m not happy for the result, but I’m happy for the feelings.

“We managed to improve what we were needing to improve.

“So, I want to say thanks to the team and to my crew, that made this kind of work, because finally I was able to feel the bike, I was able to feel the front, I was able to brake hard.

“In two situations I overshot in two corners because I was feeling much better.

“So, this is a great sign and I’m looking forward to going to Barcelona with this feeling and finally see where we can fight.”

Bagnaia came into Sunday’s race having experienced more troubles in the morning warm-up, with one his bikes suffering a gearbox issue.

Then, during a practice start, he was seen angrily gesticulating to his Ducati.

With Ducati team-mate Marc Marquez taking another double win, he is now 227 points adrift in third in the standings.

In the fight for second, Alex Marquez holds a 52-point advantage over Bagnaia, while Marco Bezzecchi is only 31 points behind in fourth.