Francesco Bagnaia: “I’ll wait until Misano, see what I can do”
After a nightmare start to the Barcelona weekend, Francesco Bagnaia is keeping his expectations in check ahead of his home Misano MotoGP.
With his Hungarian optimism squashed by a grim Catalan MotoGP weekend, Francesco Bagnaia is approaching his home Misano round without expectations.
The Ducati Lenovo rider was confident that a ‘huge’ set-up change at Balaton Park offered a breakthrough in addressing season-long corner entry woes.
But it was back to drawing board in Barcelona, where Bagnaia returned to a more normal set-up after being left 21st on Friday.
The Italian’s situation didn’t improve in qualifying (21st), followed by 14th in the Sprint.
Bagnaia’s situation finally improved on Sunday, with fifth in warm-up and then seventh place in the grand prix.
However, Bagnaia’s preference for the GP-fuel tank means he often feels better on Sunday.
“A bigger fuel tank is helping me always to have more traction and to exit faster from the corner,” he confirmed.
The double world champion crossed the line 16 seconds from winner Alex Marquez, and 14.3 behind factory team-mate Marc Marquez.
Once again, Bagnaia’s 2024 race time - on the GP24 now being used by Alex Marquez, Fermin Aldeguer and Franco Morbidelli - would have been enough for victory.
With Bagnaia indicating he will avoid the disruption of further major changes in a grand prix event, he’s now hoping for a more normal weekend in Misano.
“Honestly, I don't want to do the same as Balaton, where I arrived here convinced that I could be competitive,” Bagnaia said in Barcelona.
“So I will make a step back, wait until Misano and see what I can do.”
He added: “I would really like to arrive in Misano with this kind of speed, this kind of competitivity and see if I can be in the front.
"Start already at this point on Friday and not be out of Qualifying 2… A normal weekend.”
Off the podium for the past four rounds, Misano, like Barcelona, has been a successful event for Bagnaia in the past.
He won the San Marino Grand Prix in 2021 and 2022, was on the podium throughout the 2023 and 2024 rounds, won the Emilia Romagna Sprint then crashed in the GP.
"Misano is always special, we'll try to enjoy the embrace of all the Ducati fans,” Bagnaia said.
Bagnaia starts the weekend having slipped 68 points behind Alex Marquez in the battle for MotoGP title runner-up.
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