Pecco Bagnaia: MotoGP riders at fault after Motegi hard-tyre “surprise”

Pecco Bagnaia said the impressive performance of the hard rear tyre in Sunday’s Japanese MotoGP showed riders were at fault for dismissing it before the weekend even began.

With no previous data from the Japanese circuit’s new asphalt, Michelin brought an expanded allocation of three rear tyre options.

The soft and medium used standard constructions similar to previous years, while the hard featured a special reinforced casing normally required at high-stress events such as Buriram, the Red Bull Ring and Mandalika.

As a result, many riders viewed the hard as an ‘emergency’ or backup option, and it wasn’t used at all during Friday or Saturday.

But some blistering on the soft and medium during the Sprint prompted Michelin to withdraw the soft completely and recommend the reinforced hard for Sunday.

Riders finally sampled it during an extended warm-up and, to their surprise, most immediately went faster than they had on the medium.

"Both the medium and hard tyres worked well [in warm-up], but for sure the hard was the best solution - because the grip was there, stability was very progressive, and riders liked a lot the feeling," said Michelin's Piero Taramasso. "So the tyre choice for the race was very easy."

Every rider chose the medium front and hard rear for the grand prix, which Bagnaia’s team-mate Marc Marquez won with a race time 37 seconds faster than the Italian’s own 2025 victory.

"It was our fault"

“I think it was a big surprise, but a nice surprise!” Bagnaia said of the hard rear tyre.

“It was a fault of us, of the riders, to not try it before. But honestly, when I saw the allocation, I said it will be a backup. Michelin said it was a backup, so you try to not use a backup tyre.

“But already in the past, we had a situation like this, when the best [tyre] was the ‘other’ one. So it's always important to test everything before arriving at the race, and it was our fault to not have done it.”

Hard construction, soft compound

One reason the riders misjudged the hard rear was that Michelin had paired the reinforced construction with soft-compound rubber - the same as the tyre banned from the race - rather than a harder compound normally associated with that casing.

"Riders and teams didn't want to test it before, on Friday or Saturday, because the timing is very tight," Taramasso added. "But looking at the results, [not trying it] was not the good solution. So I think that this will be a good example for the next races in case we bring a third specification.

"The performance from the tyre was almost perfect, I would say."

Unfortunately for Bagnaia, the hard tyre change did little to solve his ongoing difficulties with the GP26.

The double MotoGP world champion finished eighth, 20.3 seconds behind Marquez, although he was still the next-best Ducati rider.

“I think we did the maximum with what we have. More than this, difficult,” he said.

“Looking also at the data during the weekend, I cannot do what the fastest riders do. So it's not a lack of speed, it's not a lack of feeling - it's that I can't. So it's a bit of a shame, because at other circuits I was already struggling last year, so you forget a bit your speed.

“But here, last year, I was super strong, so I had a clear idea of what I was able to do. And all the weekend, was like impossible.

“So, unluckily, it's like this, and we need to accept it, but we need to do the maximum. I think my team, with the electronic setup and setup of the bike, did a very good job, so more than this was impossible.”

Meanwhile, as a 31-time MotoGP winner for Ducati, Bagnaia has contributed more than any other rider towards Gigi Dall’Igna's 100th victory on Sunday. 

“Everybody knows Gigi, how capable he is. He did an incredible job,” Bagnaia said. 

“Unluckily, in the last two seasons, I wasn't able to do what I'm able to do. To increase [the wins] and to do [the 100th] before, but it's what it is.

“So, congratulations to Gigi. Surely, he did an amazing job.”