Pecco Bagnaia “a passenger” in Indonesia MotoGP sprint, "out of my control”

Pecco Bagnaia says he was “a passenger” on his Ducati MotoGP bike in the Indonesian Grand Prix sprint due to something “out of my control”.

The double world champion looked to have made a sudden form turnaround when he swept the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend, giving rise to hope of a genuine resurgence for the final rounds of 2025.

But the Indonesian Grand Prix weekend has been a return to his pre-Japan form, with Pecco Bagnaia failing to get out of Q1 in 16th on the grid and finishing almost 30 seconds off the win in Saturday’s sprint in last.

Much has been made about Bagnaia testing a GP24 at Misano, which seemingly formed the basis of the bike he raced to success in Japan.

Bagnaia says the Ducati he has this weekend is “theoretically” the same, but suffered violent shaking on it in the sprint. As a result, his average pace was almost two seconds per lap slower than Marco Bezzecchi’s at the front of the field.

“I’m not riding. I’m just a passenger on my bike. I can’t control anything,” he said.

“I’m just having movement. I think four times I arrived to the first corner and corner 10 without brakes.

“Three times I needed to close the throttle, three shakes. So, difficult to imagine a race like this, a weekend like this yesterday, given what happened one week ago.

“Luckily one week ago we had this kind of race weekend, because like this every doubt that people were having is gone.

“So, I have nothing more to demonstrate this season. It’s the only situation where I was in a good feeling, when I was riding my bike, I won everything.

“So, now I am back to the feeling of Misano and the rest of the season.

“Today, for me, was just over. I finished 30s from the lead, 13s from second-last. Difficult to imagine.”

Asked if he had a technical issue, he replied: “I don’t think it’s a technical problem. I think it’s more another thing out of my control.”

Tyre construction the root of Bagnaia’s Mandalika problems?

The last time Bagnaia complained of shaking on his GP25 and struggles in accelerating as a result was at the Austrian Grand Prix, which was the last time Michelin’s stiffer rear tyre construction was used.

Asked if his feelings were the same as in Austria, he said: “Exactly.”

He added: “I cannot brake harder because I was losing the front almost every corner again.

“I could not open the throttle because I was spinning a lot. I cannot accelerate in a good way because the bike was shaking a lot. So, strange.”

Bagnaia is at a loss to explain what is going on, while noting that in Japan he showed everything he is possibly capable of.

“I don’t understand it too,” he said.

“I was thinking that I was coming here with the same thing as Motegi, because it’s true that in Motegi we did things on the bike.

“And now, theoretically the same bike, it’s not working and is the same as before. So, I don’t understand.

“It’s more a frustration because I have nothing more to show.

“I demonstrated one week ago what I’m able to do. I’m just frustrated because one week ago I was winning and today I was last.

“And in qualifying pushing like hell I was 16th. So, something is not working anymore.”