Pol Espargaro tells Francesco Bagnaia he has to make one change after Thai GP, ‘pressure will start to boil’

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Francesco Bagnaia suffered a concerning defeat to Ducati teammate Marc Marquez at the Thailand Grand Prix last weekend. There was a school of thought that Bagnaia may have an early advantage as his new teammate adapted, but that was proved emphatically wrong.

The Italian qualified third in Buriram, within two-tenths of Marquez. He held station in both the Sprint and Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Marquez had entered the event as the strong favourite after his dominant performance in the final pre-season test at the same venue. But Bagnaia wouldn’t have expected to lose out to his younger brother already.

The Italian stayed in the mix with the top two after Marquez Sr relinquished the lead to manage his front-tyre pressure. But he couldn’t mount a concerted challenge.

Bagnaia said he had to ‘give up’ every time he got within half a second. In an extremely hot race, he was probably wary of overworking his Michelin rubber.

The gap is only 14 points, with 21 rounds still remaining. But the ease of Marquez’s victory was ominous.

Pol Espargaro warns Francesco Bagnaia he must take more ‘risks’ in MotoGP practice

DAZN pundit Pol Espargaro has called for Bagnaia to change his approach after the Thailand Grand Prix. He traced his difficulties back to Friday practice.

Bagnaia missed out on an automatic Q2 place in Buriram after a session where he was out-of-step with the frontrunners. Franco Morbidelli picked up a penalty for impeding his compatriot at a crucial moment.

Espargaro says the two-time world champion is riding too cautiously at the start of a weekend, which then puts him on the backfoot. He can’t bank on Marquez encountering issues on a dominant motorcycle.

If he continues to lose out to both brothers, then serious questions will be asked inside the Ducati garage.

“It’s obvious that if Marc is able to score points and, if in addition, Alex is able to put a little bit of a gap between Pecco and him, the pressure will start to boil inside that box,” Espargaro, who’s still active as a test rider for KTM, said.

“He has to start being competitive from the first day on Friday. He can’t take that time anymore, recovering little by little until Sunday. He would have to be fast from the first training session, taking a little more risks.

“This makes the weekends very difficult and you have to keep in mind that Marc will rarely fail this year.”

Francesco Bagnaia won’t be happy with what Luigi Dall’Igna did after Thailand Grand Prix

Neil Hodgson says Bagnaia looked ‘punch-drunk’ after Sunday’s race. The TNT Sports pundit described it as a ‘knockout blow in the first round’.

The 28-year-old must now spend the next fortnight before Argentina studying the data to work out exactly what went wrong. If he’s not careful, the championship could get away from him quickly.

Bagnaia has never won in Termas de Rio Hondo, while Marquez has stood on the top step three times. He needs to draw motivation from critics writing him off.

Luigi Dall’Igna kissed Marquez’s bike in parc ferme, which is unlikely to impress Bagnaia. It’s clear that the Ant of Cervera has already formed a strong bond with his new colleagues.