Francesco Bagnaia of Ducati admits he has “a number of questions” regarding his poor performance in last Sunday’s rainy MotoGP Indonesian Grand Prix, when he finished 15th.
After yellow flags in Friday’s FP2 session prevented him from advancing straight into Q2, the four-time MotoGP world champion finished sixth.
Bagnaia was projected to be a front runner last Sunday, given the rainy circumstances that plagued the abbreviated 20-lap Mandalika race.
However, a “weird” sensation on his Michelin medium wet tyre deprived him of speed and led him to struggle under braking, with the Italian fortunate to remain on his bike following a spectacular crash into Turn 1 on the sixth lap.
“I have a lot of questions about my race,” Bagnaia said, having taken the chequered flag 35.7s off the win in 15th.
“I have to understand a lot of things on what didn’t work because it’s strange that in the test in Malaysia I had a really great feeling in the wet.
“In the test here [at Mandalika] in the first session I was very strong in the wet and my feeling was incredible like always.
“And today I was struggling a lot from the start. Already in the first braking I was feeling strange on the first braking of the race, I lost a lot of positions.
“And then I was trying to push a bit more I was losing the front always and I had the luck to don’t crash when in the finish of the straight because I was quite fast and it was a bit scary.
“But looking also at the tyres, it has not worked.
“Maybe I was not pushing like I have to do, but looks strange.
“I’m quite disappointed and for sure not happy about this weekend because we’ve taken just one point in two weekends.
“Our potential is a lot higher than this. In the warm-up I was very competitive on used tyres. So, it’s a difficult situation, a difficult moment.”
Bagnaia is presently at 20th place in the standings, having fallen out of the first round in Qatar, a race in which all 2022 Ducati riders suffered.
Bagnaia, on the other hand, claims that his bike was not his concern in the Indonesia competition, and that he was “ready to battle for the win” if the weather had been dry.
“For me , the problem was not my bike, sincerely because like always on wet our bike is incredible,” he added.
“[It] was not like this for me, I was struggling too much with one of the strong points of our bike in wet which is the front.
“It’s a strange feeling. It’s just the second race, we are understanding things, my feeling in the morning [warm-up] was incredible with the bike.
“We were ready to fight for the win. I would like to reset my mindset and start again thinking positively again.”
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