Pecco Bagnaia: Ducati ‘has no answers’ to Mandalika MotoGP misery

Pecco Bagnaia says Ducati “has no answers” to why he struggled so much at the MotoGP Indonesian Grand Prix a week on from his domination at Motegi.

The double world champion swept the Japanese Grand Prix weekend seven days ago, in a return to form for the first time in 2025 as apparent switches to 2024 parts on his bike unlocked his confidence.

Ducati has refused to confirm repeated reports from VR46 that Pecco Bagnaia’s turnaround was aided by him testing one of Franco Morbidelli’s GP24s at Misano.

All weekend at Mandalika, Bagnaia has struggled, with the Italian almost 30s off the win in last in the sprint and circulating in last in Sunday’s grand prix when he crashed on lap eight of 27.

At that point, Bagnaia was lapping two seconds slower than eventual winner Fermin Aldeguer on the 2024-spec Gresini-run Ducati.

Bagnaia dodged his media duties on Sunday, with Ducati stating that this was “a consequence of the crash” - it has not elaborated further.

Releasing a brief statement from a lost Bagnaia, the Italian said: “Very disappointing weekend, after what happened last week.

“Pole position and winning both races. I was expecting to arrive here and… this track was never easy for me, but I always got good results.

“Also last year I won the sprint race and finished third. This year, arriving after the Motegi GP, I didn’t find the same feeling as Motegi.

“I wasn’t able to find the same feeling as Motegi. I just struggled.

“We don’t have any answers for what happened this weekend.

“So, we just checked the data, and hope the engineers will find the solution for the next GPs and try to fight for the top three in the championship.

“I want to say sorry to the team for the crash. I was pushing, even if I was slower by 1.5s, I’m saying sorry because I wanted to close the gap to the second-last and I just crashed.”

This compounded a miserable day for the factory Ducati squad, after world champion Marc Marquez injured his collarbone when he was taken down by Marco Bezzecchi on the opening lap.

All of this comes a day after Ducati won the teams’ championship.