Pecco Bagnaia “much happier” despite Le Mans MotoGP practice crash

Pecco Bagnaia finished a promising opening day at the 2026 French MotoGP third on the timesheets, despite a late crash.

The Italian was able to build on progress made at the recent Jerez test, including a new Ducati fairing, but admitted he’s still missing something.

“At the Jerez test I was feeling a bit better, and today I felt it [again], so I’m happy,” Bagnaia told MotoGP.com.

“It's clear that we're still missing something, but it was a step. And glad that it's like this because today I was able to push, control the tyres and it makes me much happier.

“Even if I crashed, I crashed pushing and not like sometimes this year when I crashed without really knowing why.

“But I still miss some turning, so we are pushing to make the bike stop better and turn more.

“Tomorrow we will try something if it’s dry. But right now, I'm okay, I'm happy.”

Bagnaia revealed that rain could arrive just as Saturday morning’s qualifying gets underway.

“The weather forecast looks like for qualifying it will start to rain, so it's important that we make a step in the wet compared to Jerez, because I was struggling quite a lot for grip.”

Bagnaia’s late fall also had consequences for team-mate Marc Marquez, whose final attempt to secure a direct Qualifying 2 place was scuppered due to the yellow flags.