Pecco Bagnaia explains Jerez MotoGP retirement: “I needed to stop”

Francesco Bagnaia registered his second DNF of the season at the Jerez MotoGP, the Italian suggesting braking issues forced him out.

Bagnaia was running ninth in the Spanish Grand Prix when he retired from the race which was won by fellow Ducati rider Alex Marquez.

The Ducati Lenovo Team rider was light on details when he was asked about the retirement after the race, but said he had been “uncomfortable” from the start of the 25-lap MotoGP race.

“A little [problem],” Francesco Bagnaia told TNT Sports after the Spanish Grand Prix.

“The team is working on it to understand the situation but something that unluckily can happen. 

“I started the race a bit uncomfortable but was able to remain quite competitive, but lap-by-lap I was getting worse and worse and I just needed to stop.”

Bagnaia added: “It was just very difficult to reduce the speed.”

Bagnaia hasn’t been the only Ducati rider to struggle at the start of the season, Alex Marquez having been without a podium in the first three rounds after winning three races and finishing second in the standings in 2025.

But Marquez won in Jerez after spending most of the weekend as the fastest rider while Bagnaia’s struggles continued.

The Italian said afterwards that Marquez and Gresini had simply worked better than himself in the Ducati Lenovo Team.

“I think that we did a little step in front today, my feeling on the bike was a bit better,” he said.

“But Alex [Marquez] and the Gresini team did an amazing job, they worked much better and they improved a lot. 

“He was struggling a lot with the GP26 and this weekend he improved a lot, so we just need to study them and maybe copy them. “

Bagnaia added that he will try to copy Marquez in Monday’s post-race test.

“Understand some new solutions that Ducati bring and try to copy Alex to improve,” Bagnaia said of his objectives for the first in-season test of the season.

Bagnaia’s DNF combined with Marc Marquez’s crash from second place on lap two means Ducati has gone nine races now without one of its factory bikes on the podium.