“I can’t imagine” - Pecco Bagnaia’s grim MotoGP outlook after Aragon crash

Pecco Bagnaia has warned “I can’t imagine” what problems he will face when he gets to low-grip MotoGP tracks, after crashing out of the Aragon Grand Prix.

The double world champion is enduring a torrid run since MotoGP returned from the summer break, as his long-standing rear grip issues on the Ducati GP26 have worsened.

Crashing out of a difficult British Grand Prix, he suffered another retirement on Sunday at Aragon, after falling out of seventh place on lap six of the 23-tour race.

“The lack of rear grip is too much”

Pecco Bagnaia told the media afterwards that he finished his medium rear tyre after just five laps, which led to his crash.

“Lost the rear, lost the front,” he began.

“For me, the lack of grip from the rear is too much, because the reality is I have zero grip - completely.

“Completely zero grip. I put the map with less power after five laps because the rear was completely finished in five laps, without pushing, without doing anything.

“So, I was struggling a lot. I was starting to have a lot of floating already in lap five. And I lost the rear, and then when the rear came back I lost the front.”

Bagnaia appeared to be getting on top of the issue in the middle part of the season, when he went on a run of four successive podiums between Barcelona and Brno.

But he says since Silverstone “something happened” and the problem has gotten worse, leaving him worried about what he will face when he goes to tracks with low-grip asphalt.

“I think the feeling wasn’t that bad up to Sachsenring,” he added.

“Everything was working in a more consistent way.

“I was struggling, this is true, but the results were more optimistic.

“Since Silverstone, something happened because I have zero grip completely, and I don’t know [what will happen] when we will arrive in circuits where the level of grip is lower.

“I can’t imagine it.”

Asked if he did anything to the bike set-up wise that could offer an explanation, he said: “No. Set-up is similar. The thing was that yesterday morning I was feeling a bit better.

“We tried to put more weight on the rear. But it was more difficult in the sprint race.

“In the morning, we went back to the set-up from more or less the rest of the season. The warm-up was a disaster for many reasons, but then in the race the tyre was finished in five laps.”