BAGNAIA SAYS HE CAN’T PINPOINT WHY DUCATI’S REAR-GRIP PROBLEMS PERSIST AFTER MISANO CRASH

Pecco Bagnaia admitted he could not find a clear answer to why his Ducati has continued to struggle for rear grip, after a difficult San Marino Grand Prix at Misano ended with another crash and an early exit from qualifying.

The double world champion’s weekend began with problems that followed him through the session schedule. He failed to progress out of Q1 and then managed only 13th in the sprint, leaving him chasing answers at his home race. On Sunday, those concerns turned into a race-ending moment when he crashed out at Turn 2 on lap six.

Speaking after the incident, Bagnaia said it was hard to understand what was going wrong despite trying to execute the plan. “I was trying,” he explained. “I had a better start compared to yesterday, so I tried to follow [Fabio] Di Giannantonio after Franky [Morbidelli] had the long lap penalty to serve.”

He added that once he found a little more engine speed, the bike still betrayed him at the critical moment. “I just tried to follow him, and as soon as I had a bit more spin, in corner two I lost the front again.” The result was “unluckily another crash,” which he described as part of “another difficult weekend.”

Bagnaia also reflected on how the situation has become a recurring theme. He said the circumstances are what they are and that the team must keep working with the information available: “So, unluckily another crash, unluckily another difficult weekend. But the situation is this and we need to work with what we have.”

When asked about the broader pattern of his grip issues, he said it is “difficult to know and to answer,” pointing to the fact that similar levels of grip have been present elsewhere. “Difficult to know and to answer, because at Brno the level of grip is high and similar to this one,” he said. “But in Brno, my feeling was better. My problem with the rear grip was less.”

At Misano, however, he described the sensation as extreme. “This weekend I was in a very difficult situation with the grip, because I was feeling zero.” He also noted that he spoke with other Ducati riders who reported a different reality on their machines. “And I was speaking with other Ducati riders, saying that the grip was high but I wasn’t feeling that.”

Summing up the challenge, Bagnaia said: “So, difficult to know why, but it is what it is and we have to continue and keep working and try to solve the things.”

The San Marino round also followed a sprint day where he had already expressed frustration about how he felt compared to expectations, saying he was “humiliated” by the ongoing grip struggles and that no other Ducati rider was experiencing the same level of difficulty.

With the championship moving on to Austria and the Red Bull Ring, Bagnaia believes the circuit can suit Ducati when he is able to find the right feel. He said the track is “one of the best for me,” recalling that when he has been comfortable on the bike he has been able to win with significant margins. “When I was feeling good on the bike, I was winning races with a lot of seconds of gap,” he said.

Still, he stressed that the team will need to understand what the bike will feel like once they arrive. “So, it’s a very good track for me, but we will need to understand when we arrive there what we will feel.”

He also acknowledged that tyre characteristics could play a role, with Michelin bringing a stiffer rear tyre carcass to the Red Bull Ring. That factor, combined with his current rear-grip concerns, means the next step for Bagnaia is not just to chase pace, but to identify why the traction feel has been so inconsistent—especially when other Ducati riders appear to be reading the grip differently.