Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia’s 2025 MotoGP season has got off to a disastrous start. The Ducati rider failed to reach Q2 for the Thailand Grand Prix.
The 28-year-old is one of the clear favourites for the championship in 2025 alongside teammate Marc Marquez. Bagnaia won 11 out of 20 races last year but missed out to Jorge Martin by just 10 points.
Heading into the Thailand GP, the Italian was expected to top the field after showing Ducati were still the team to beat in pre-season. The Bologna-based team will run with the 2024 engine in the GP25, or ‘GP24.9’ as Bagnaia puts it.
In the 60-minute practice session on Friday, it was Alex Marquez who topped the timesheets for Gresini with brother Marc Marquez just five-hundredths of a second behind. Pedro Acosta and Marco Bezzecchi showed promising signs for KTM and Aprilia in third and fourth respectively.
Franco Morbidelli, Joan Mir, Raul Fernandez, Fabio Quartararo, Ai Ogura and Johann Zarco completed the top 10, earning a spot in Q2 on Saturday. Bagnaia was the notable absentee as he could only manage 13th.
The Ducati could not improve his time after he was impeded by Morbidelli on his final flying lap. The actions of the VR46 rider have left the paddock furious.
Mat Oxley fumes at ‘hopeless’ Franco Morbidelli for impeding Francesco Bagnaia
Bagnaia was under teammate Marquez’s split time in sector one to go P1 in the session but lost almost two tenths in S2. The Italian encountered Morbidelli dawdling on the racing line and had to abandon his lap.
Bagnaia was visibly frustrated as he gestured angrily towards his fellow compatriot. While Morbidelli grabbed P5, the two-time MotoGP champion will have to face Q1 to save his weekend in Buriram.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Francesco Bagnaia from net worth to race number
Sylvain Guintoli slammed Morbidelli’s ‘unacceptable’ actions – the VR46 rider will receive a three-place grid penalty for the race for impeding Bagnaia.
Responding to the news of the penalty on X (formerly Twitter), Mat Oxley unleashed his fury towards Morbidelli. He was staggered by how ‘dangerous’ it was and how a rider can be ‘so hopeless’ about rider safety.
“No argument about this one. It forever blows my mind that the world’s best riders can be so hopeless when it comes to basic safety. That was sooo dangerous,” he wrote.
Francesco Bagnaia now has a mountain to climb in Thailand
Morbidelli admitted himself to Sky Sport Italia that impeding Bagnaia was dangerous and the penalty was justified.
The Ducati rider feels he should not have been in that position in the first place. Bagnaia fumed at race control for incorrectly waving the yellow flag while on an earlier lap – he would have reached Q2 with that time had it not been deleted.
But it still leaves Bagnaia in a difficult situation. While he has to go through Q1, his teammate and title rival Marquez is in a better position in Q2 and with strong place.
The Spaniard blitzed the field in Buriram during testing and looks to have continued that momentum into this weekend. It could be disastrous for Bagnaia’s supremacy in the Ducati battle with Marquez as the latter could become the firm favourite for the championship with a strong qualifying.
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