Throughout the Aragon Grand Prix weekend Francesco Bagnaia has struggled and experienced further difficulties in the Sprint Race.
Francesco Bagnaia has had a weekend to forget at MotorLand Aragon after two days of riding. However, the reigning Champion does believe that the issue is out of his control.
The Italian started his weekend off in 21st place in Free Practice One, two seconds slower than Marc Marquez. Bagnaia improved on Friday afternoon up to sixth place, but on Saturday morning he was back down to 11th.
Bagnaia had seemingly turned his weekend around as he managed to put his Ducati in third place on the grid. But the Sprint Race highlighted his issues this weekend as he dropped like a stone back to ninth. Throughout the 11-lap race, Bagnaia did not look like the rider that fans are used to seeing.
After the race when speaking to MotoGP.com Bagnaia said: "It is the same thing that happened yesterday morning, it is out of our control. It is not something about our bike, our team or me. It is something that can happen, the thing is it has happened twice at the same weekend, and it is something that should not be possible. I really hope that tomorrow will be better."
Bagnaia's Sprint Race was unusually scrappy from start to finish. The two-time MotoGP Champion may have qualified in third, but as the lights went out he lost all advantage. Bagnaia's rear tyre spun up at the race start and he had no choice but to drift across the track towards fellow riders.
"For the start today I was starting on the dirty side of the grid," Pecco stated. "In the safety commission, the first thing I asked was 'Please clean the starting grid, if not it could be a problem'. And it was a problem. I was lucky that Alex (Marquez) had good reflexes behind me because he was able to not hit me. But it was very dangerous."
Every MotoGP rider was left scratching their heads yesterday after Marc Marquez destroyed the field. Marquez's pace in the Sprint Race left even Bagnaia confused about what Marquez was doing.
"He is doing four or five degrees more than me in some corners without losing the front," Marquez said. "This is incredible, he is the only one able to do it. It is something very difficult to understand because only he is doing it, no other Ducati riders. So it is quite difficult, but we already know what Marc can do so for tomorrow we will try a step."
