After the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez, Francesco Bagnaia explained the reason behind his retirement.
Not satisfied, but still confident about bouncing back as early as tomorrow’s test, the three-time world champion was forced to retire due to a technical issue.
Bagnaia’s words
Speaking to Sky Sport MotoGP, Bagnaia said:“We’re still trying to fully understand the problem. The team is working on it and analyzing everything, but it’s clear there was a technical issue at the front. We’re quite confident it’s not something that will easily happen again. Hopefully we can already fix it for tomorrow’s test.”
“Up until that moment — apart from the start where I didn’t manage the clutch release well and immediately lost positions — I felt better and more comfortable than yesterday. I was braking hard, overtaking several riders, and the pace wasn’t bad until the issue got worse. It was already not perfect at the start, struggling under braking, and it kept getting worse lap after lap.”
“In terms of feeling, I was quite comfortable. I could make the bike turn better, even though our main issue remains. If you want to carry a lot of corner speed, you have to push the front a lot, and that’s a tricky situation. Today I think we made a small step forward, and tomorrow in the test we’ll work a lot.”
“Looking at others, the Gresini team did a very good job during the break. We’ll try to learn from their solutions, which helped Alex be immediately competitive. Ducati also brought some updates that could help us.”
“In fast corners, the issue wasn’t the tyre — it was new. The limitation is more general. This year the bike has this inertia: when you carry speed into the corner, it struggles to turn and you have to force it a lot. When the tyre drops, it becomes even more difficult” , Pecco concluded.
Photo: Ducati Corse
