BAGNAIA LEFT WITHOUT POINTS IN ARAGON AFTER CRASH, BLAMES “NO GRIP”

Pecco Bagnaia left Aragón with no points after a difficult weekend that he linked to a sudden loss of grip since Silverstone. In the MotoGP Sprint, the Ducati factory rider finished 11th, failing to score. On Sunday in the Grand Prix, he started from eighth and made a promising early move, working his way up to seventh in the opening laps and briefly running with the front group that included VR46 teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio.

However, Bagnaia’s pace faded quickly. By the end of the fifth lap, he was already two seconds behind the Trackhouse Aprilia of Raúl Fernández. The race then turned into a crash for the two-time world champion: he fell in lap six while still in seventh place, ending his day.

Explaining what went wrong, Bagnaia said he had a decent start and tried to follow the group ahead, but felt the bike was not competitive enough—especially when accelerating. “I had an ordentlichen Start and have tried to follow the group in front of me. I was not competitive enough for that, especially with acceleration. I had zero grip,” he said. He added that the grip issue forced a change during the race: “Already after five laps I had to change the engine mapping to save the tyres.”

Bagnaia also described the moment of the fall. “I was just trying to keep my pace, but then I crashed at a spot where I had already received a warning in the previous lap. The rear broke out, and when I got it back under control, the front end tucked in,” he said.

The Aragón result followed a broader slump in the second half of the season. Bagnaia referenced back-to-back problems after Silverstone, noting that the feeling on the bike had deteriorated. “Until Sachsenring the feeling wasn’t so bad. Everything worked a bit more consistently. I had my difficulties, but the results were better. Since Silverstone something has happened. I have zero grip,” he said. He also questioned how the situation would look on tracks where grip levels are even lower, saying he “doesn’t know” what happens there.

Bagnaia pointed to attempts to address the issue through setup changes. He said that on Saturday morning he felt slightly better and that the team tried to put more weight onto the rear wheel. But he reported that the Sprint was still worse. On Sunday morning, he said they returned to a setup they had been using for much of the season, and he described the warm-up as problematic for different reasons. “In the race, the rear tyre was finished after five laps,” he added.

While Bagnaia struggled, Marc Márquez delivered a strong Aragón performance for the team, taking two wins. With the next round scheduled in Misano in two weeks—where Bagnaia regularly trains with the VR46 Academy and where the track is described as having plenty of grip—he will look to turn the page at his home event.