Francesco Bagnaia admits “everybody can make mistakes, mine was worse”

Francesco Bagnaia suffered another tough day in his 2025 MotoGP season on Saturday in Valencia, qualifying 16th and finishing 14th in the Sprint.

Bagnaia’s 16th place in qualifying came after he stopped on-track on his second run in MotoGP Q1.

Bagnaia confirmed that the issue in qualifying was a “miscalculation” in fuel load, and accepted not only that mistakes happen but admitted that he had made more costly ones.

“Last year I crashed in Barcelona that I was winning and I made the team lose the championship,” Francesco Bagnaia said.

“So, everybody can make mistakes – my one was worse.”

Still, it was qualifying that conditioned Bagnaia’s day after having initially made progress in FP2.

“Qualifying was missing,” he said. “Fuel was missing. 

“This morning we improved, I was faster, I was able to improve my performance and lap-by-lap I was getting more feeling. 

“Then, in qualifying, I started not in a fantastic way but in the second attempt I ran out of fuel.

“So, it’s something that everyone makes mistakes: I make mistakes, the team can make mistakes, it’s normal, it’s part of the job. So, it can happen. 

“In this moment it looks worse because already the situation and the season was quite tough, so it looks worse, but it is what it is. 

“Then, starting from 16th in a track like this that is difficult to overtake – if you want to overtake you crash or you have contact, so it’s very difficult. 

“You need to be [much] stronger and faster than the riders in front, and if you look at the pace I was with a similar pace to Fabio [Quartararo] that arrived seventh. 

“So, it’s difficult to imagine something different if you are not that much faster than the guys in front of you.”

“Always the same feeling”

P14 for Bagnaia is of course an underperformance looking at his season at a whole but something quite normal in 2025.

Compared to good races, Bagnaia explained that the feeling he has on the bike is the same at ones where his performance is worse – the feeling never changes, only the result.

“Always the same feeling, just the performance is different,” the Ducati Lenovo Team rider said.

“When I’m riding, I feel always the same: no stopping, no turning, and no braking. 

“But in Sepang it was enough to be leading, in Phillip Island it was enough to be last, and here it’s enough to be 16th. 

“It depends on the track, on the conditions. The feeling was never better.”