Francesco Bagnaia reveals what Ducati were ‘happy’ about at Misano despite scoreless performance

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Francesco Bagnaia suffered at the most recent MotoGP race weekend in Misano, crashing out of the Grand Prix after failing to score points in the Sprint race.

Ducati teammate Marc Marquez went on to win his 11th Grand Prix of the season at the San Marino Grand Prix, holding off Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi in a nail-biting race that saw both riders in a class of their own at the front of the pack.

The early retirement from the race was Bagnaia’s second DNF of the campaign, in a season which has left a lot to be desired for the two-time world champion of the premier class.

Ducati’s patience with Bagnaia is wavering as the Italian rider continues to struggle in his attempts to replicate the results of the championship-leading Marquez. He has failed to show his adaptability to the GP25, the same bike that Marquez has won 25 of the 32 races to be held this year.

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Ducati and Francesco Bagnaia ‘agreed’ that they were happy about his crash at Misano

The MotoGP grid remained in the province of Rimini following the conclusion of the Grand Prix for the final in-season test session of the current campaign.

Following his off at Misano, Neil Hodgson claimed that Bagnaia’s lack of crashes in 2025 has been ‘strange’ amid his woes with the GP25.

The former MotoGP rider says that he needs to see the Italian rider come off his bike to prove that he is, in fact, pushing it to the very limit.

Bagnaia spoke to journalists following the conclusion of the test on Monday and revealed that the Italian constructor’s attitude towards the crash shares similarities with Hodgson’s comments during the race.

The Italian rider replied, via Speedweek, “We more or less all agreed that we were happy with the crash, because in the end, I was trying.

“Crashing is never good, of course, but in the end, we were in the race, and I was close to Di Giannantonio. It was better than in the sprint race.”

READ MORE: Francesco Bagnaia has received ‘help’ from Casey Stoner in three areas of his Ducati bike at the Misano test

Francesco Bagnaia missed his media duties after the San Marino Grand Prix due to a ‘lengthy’ meeting with Ducati

Bagnaia’s debrief with Ducati after the events of the race on Sunday went on for so long that he ended up missing out on his media duties. Whether that was intentional or not is unclear after Marquez explained the media’s role in Bagnaia’s woes this season.

However, Bagnaia disclosed why the meeting with Ducati chiefs went on for so long, telling journalists, “At the meeting after the Grand Prix, we talked more about the test. We put the race and the weekend aside, it was more important to plan a different kind of test.

“We usually test parts, but it didn’t work in Aragon, and in Jerez it was less than nothing. This time it was more important to focus more on my performance and the feeling on the bike, it was great.”

Bagnaia undertook a completely different testing program to his high-flying teammate, focusing on optimising set-ups and weight distribution, whilst Marquez tried out different swingarms and aerodynamic packages.

The Italian rider set the eighth fastest time of the test, just over half a second off Pedro Acosta’s benchmark and half a tenth off Marquez.