BAGNAIA STRUGGLES WITH GRIP AS MOTEGI FORM FADES

Pecco Bagnaia’s return to Motegi has begun in stark contrast to last year’s breakthrough. In 2025, the Ducati rider took pole and won both races at the Japanese Grand Prix during a difficult season. Twelve months later, he ended Friday practice 16th, 0.775 seconds behind pace-setter Alex Marquez, while team-mate Marc Marquez was third.

The result leaves Bagnaia facing Q1 for the sixth consecutive race weekend. Asked what had changed on his bike since his 2025 Motegi success, he answered: “Everything,” then added, “Unluckily, everything.”

Bagnaia said the familiar lack of rear grip was again limiting him. “Standard. A standard Friday for this season. Struggling with grip, no grip, completely zero grip. We need to work on it,” he said, describing the issue as “always, more or less, the same.”

He believes the tyre situation makes this weekend harder than Austria, where the AZ tyre offered less grip to everyone and helped him stay closer to the front. At Motegi, he said, the casing is the usual one, and he cannot feel the extra grip. “I struggle more because I don’t feel the extra grip,” he explained, adding that the team would take a constructive approach and try to make progress.

Bagnaia was the only Ducati GP26 rider outside the top 10. Among the other Ducati riders, Fermin Aldeguer and Franco Morbidelli also missed direct entry to Q2 on GP25 machinery. Morbidelli said he had shown strong pace on the medium tyre but could not carry that performance into his soft-tyre time attack.

“Unfortunately, I’m bummed about that because at one point of the day we had a great speed, especially with the medium,” Morbidelli said. He had expected to improve enough on the soft to reach Q2, but fell short. “It’s not a lot; it’s two tenths, but it’s enough.”