Pecco Bagnaia explains major MotoGP breakthrough in Indonesia

Pecco Bagnaia says he “understood something” in Japan that helped him to a significant breakthrough on his Ducati at the MotoGP Indonesian Grand Prix on Friday.

The double world champion has endured a torrid run of form since the summer break, as he failed to finish at Silverstone, Aragon and Misano, and took a seventh- and eighth-place finish at Spielberg and Motegi.

The Ducati rider also went through a six-round stretch of failing to get directly into Q2 on Friday, though this was ended today in Indonesia.

Pecco Bagnaia scraped into the top 10 for his first direct Q2 appearance since Assen, something that took him by surprise.

How the Japanese GP helped Bagnaia on Friday in Indonesia

Bagnaia says he “understood something” last weekend in Japan that allowed him to be stronger on corner entry.

“Honestly, I wasn’t thinking, looking at yesterday, that I was able to do it here, because normally we struggle quite a bit,” he told reporters, including Crash, on Friday.

“But this morning, thanks to the race in Japan where we understood something, I felt better on braking and entry.

“So, I was able to do more laps, consecutive laps, and that helped me to find more confidence.

“And it was good. It’s true that we had a little issue; I was losing the front a lot of times.

“But it was for a thing that I cannot say and for tomorrow everything will be done.

“But it was difficult because I needed to jump between the two bikes all afternoon, and the bikes were with two different set-ups, so it wasn’t easy.

“But I’m happy with the job done; I think we did a good job. Aprilia, at the moment, is too far. But we still have some margin to improve.”

“Tomorrow will be better”

For the first time since the summer, Bagnaia heads into the next phase of a race weekend in genuinely buoyant fashion, though does concede that closing down the Aprilias is unlikely.

“At the moment, my potential is not [to chase the Aprilias] because I lose too much in sector two and sector four,” he explained.

“But I think doing little differences on the bike can make a big difference.

“We saw that just having less lean angle today I was able to improve some sectors.

“So, I will try to do something with riding, and also let’s see if there is something on the set-up. And having the same bike also. So, tomorrow will be better.”