Pecco Bagnaia takes “all the positives” from Le Mans MotoGP into Catalunya

Pecco Bagnaia’s French MotoGP weekend finished in the gravel after a “little issue” with his factory Ducati.

But up to that point, it had been his best event of the season, qualifying on pole, finishing runner-up to Jorge Martin in the Sprint, then holding that same position when he crashed with ten laps to go in the grand prix.

Although Bagnaia set the fastest lap earlier in the race, he might still have been pushed off the podium by Martin and Ai Ogura, who went on to claim first and third, either side of fellow Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi.

Even so, Bagnaia was on course to finish as the top Ducati and is taking “all the positives” from Le Mans into this weekend’s Catalunya round.

"Considering how the weekend ended in France, I'm happy to get back on track. Barcelona is a track that has always brought out the best of the Desmosedici GP,” Bagnaia said.

“I'll take all the positives from Le Mans: we were fast right from the start, always in touch with the strongest riders, even taking the pole.

“Then, in the race, we kept the pace of the best riders as much as possible, in the podium positions.

“We'll start from here, continue working throughout the weekend, and make the most of Monday's test".

"We will have a solution"

Bagnaia declined to give details of the ‘issue’ that caused his front-end accident, but is confident it can be fixed for this weekend.

“I was limited by a little issue on the bike that slowed us down,” he said at Le Mans.

“We clearly know what happened and the team is already working on it to try to improve.

“I'm confident that for the [Catalunya] weekend, thanks also to the work we did this weekend, we will have a solution.”

Bagnaia will be the lone Ducati Lenovo rider on track this weekend with team-mate and reigning champion Marc Marquez recovering from shoulder and foot surgery.