Pecco Bagnaia riding “very defensive” as MotoGP crisis continues at Misano

Francesco Bagnaia says he is riding “very defensive” in order to try to avoid crashing at the Misano MotoGP as his confidence crisis continues.

Bagnaia’s 2026 MotoGP season is, by now, turning into something resembling his 2025 year. There have been flashes of the old Bagnaia, the one that won two world titles, but the majority of his time on track has seen him completely lacking confidence.
That has not changed at Misano, a circuit that saw him on the podium for the first time in the premier class back in 2020, then the scene of two Bagnaia victories in 2021 and 2022.

This year, though, he found himself 18th in FP1, and 19th in Practice on Friday.

“The team is working hard to figure out the problem but it seems impossible to understand why,” Francesco Bagnaia said of his situation after Practice at Misano.

“It's extremely clear on the data the difference between me and all the other Ducatis, because I'm braking much harder than the rest but the bike is not accelerating. 

“I'm paying a lot of attention to acceleration with the throttle but I'm the one that is accelerating less. 

“It's very strange the way my bike is working and the team is really not understanding why. We are in a very difficult situation.”

Bagnaia added that if he tries to push he feels immediately like he will crash.

“I'm riding the bike in a very defensive way because as soon as I try to do a little bit more I crash,” he said.

“So, honestly, crashing all the corners is not the way I want to figure out the situation. 

“For me today I was close to crash seven times in the Practice and that was very slow. Even in the slow laps I was almost crashing so this is strange and we need to understand why.”

Since last year, when he began struggling for confidence, Bagnaia has often compared himself with Alex Marquez, to whom he feels his riding style is most comparable.

At Misano, Bagnaia said that Marquez, who finished Practice third-fastest, is able to stop the bike much more efficiently than himself.

“He's the one that makes more difference on that because he's the one that is using less pressure but he decelerates a lot,” the Ducati Lenovo Team rider explained.

“I'm using like the double but the bike is not stopping, so very difficult.”

It’s not only Bagnaia himself who is affected by his difficulties.

“Right now it's also difficult for [the team],” he said. “What I asked is ‘try to think out of what we already tested’, because from the start of the season the problems were always the same. 

“The thing is that in the last three GPs it was much worse so maybe we are losing something around and it's hiding quite well.”