Francesco Bagnaia forced Pedro Acosta into one move he didn’t want to do after ‘difficulties’ at the Czech Grand Prix

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Francesco Bagnaia failed to make the podium for the fifth time in 12 races after finishing fourth at the Czech Grand Prix.

He heads into the summer trailing teammate Marc Marquez by 168 points in the MotoGP riders’ standings.

Ducati have given everything they can to improve his situation, but nothing seems to be working for him on track.

Bagnaia claimed pole position at the Czech Grand Prix because his teammate made a mistake, but it was all downhill from there, as he failed to reach the podium at all at Brno.

Now that the halfway stage of the season has passed, Bagnaia doesn’t believe Ducati can fix a critical issue. He seems consigned to his fate.

Bagnaia gave himself a score out of 10 for his season so far and believes that there is plenty of room for improvement in the second half of 2025. He needs the bike to work in harmony with his talents first.

READ MORE: Francesco Bagnaia makes ‘incredible’ observation about racing KTM star Pedro Acosta

Francesco Bagnaia forced Pedro Acosta to push despite ‘difficulties’ at the Czech Grand Prix

The man who denied Bagnaia a podium at Brno was Pedro Acosta, who earned his first as a factory KTM rider after 12 races.

He has been made to wait and suffer through bike issues, much like Bagnaia has, but it was worth the wait, as he secured a double podium for his team.

However, he nearly didn’t achieve that feat following a late burst from Bagnaia, who applied pressure with a handful of laps to go.

Acosta held on and told GPOne that he was already facing some ‘difficulties’ before his rival arrived right behind him.

“I was giving 100%, between lap 10 and lap 15, I had some difficulties trying to keep up with Marco, so I started to manage the rear tyre, trying to follow him to have something to play with in the final part of the race.

“When I saw Pecco approaching at 0.6s, I started to push again and give it everything, and if I couldn’t contain him, at least I would [have] known I had given it my all.”

READ MORE: ‘Positive’ Pedro Acosta spotted making behind-the-scenes change at KTM that has yielded ‘much better’ MotoGP results

Why Pedro Acosta tends to ‘suffer’ at KTM more than his rivals in 2025

Acosta’s electric Czech weekend has helped to lift him up to seventh in the riders’ standings. Now, he’s not far behind the VR46 riders and will be eyeing a top-five position.

However, his bike can be a little inconsistent. Acosta tends to ‘suffer’ more at KTM when following his rivals in dirty air.

Over the last few races, he has been able to find an edge that was missing in the first half of the campaign, but he still needs more to beat Marc Marquez.

Fortunately, he does have a very strong engine. It means that at his team’s home race in Austria in a few weeks following the summer break, he should be strong.