Pecco Bagnaia still battling ‘Indonesia problem’, ‘we don’t know how to fix it’

Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia admits he has “exactly the same” issues on one of his GP25s as he did at Mandalika and admits “we’re not sure how to fix it” after Friday at the Australian MotoGP.

The double world champion came from a clean sweep at the Japanese Grand Prix to a total disaster a week later at the Indonesian Grand Prix, where he was last in the sprint and crashed out of the main race.

Both he and his Ducati team were at a loss to explain what happened, with Pecco Bagnaia continuing to battle issues on Friday at the Australian Grand Prix.

In both practice sessions, he was seen unhappy with one of his bikes, though he was able to rally in the second half of both outings on his second machine.

He was ninth in Practice and directly into Q2, but admits he currently only has one “usable” bike, and that still isn’t giving him the feeling he had at Motegi.

“The positive side is that I’m definitely starting further ahead than I did in the last race,” he told Sky Italy.

“Otherwise, it was a difficult day to understand because we had several complications with one of the two bikes in both sessions.

“I wasn’t able to continue a job I’d done well, putting in more laps with the tyre.

“But, in the end, we managed to get into Q2, despite a less-than-perfect lap. The goal was to get into Q2, and making it is good.

“Tomorrow morning, it will be crucial to figure out which tyres to try for the sprint race, and we’ll see.”

Asked if the problems he had on one of his Ducatis were the same as in Indonesia, he replied: “Yes, exactly the same thing.

“Unfortunately, there’s something that’s the same problem as in Indonesia. And we’re not sure how to fix it.

“This has happened two or three other times this season, but we’re not really sure where it’s coming from.

“We’re trying to figure it out. I know full well that the team is there analysing what they can do to move forward.”

On the bike that is working better, he added: “It’s not [got the same feeling as] Japan. Absolutely not.

“But it’s usable. We’re trying to make it more similar. Unfortunately, I’m not able to get the same feeling on the front end with a bike that slows down well.

“And especially when I release the brakes, it spins. It’s something I’ve always missed a lot this year, and the only time I had [the perfect feeling] was in Japan.

“Here we’ve got a bike that works again; not like in Indonesia, where we had so many problems, but we still have this limitation.”