What Michele Pirro said to Francesco Bagnaia in Ducati garage after Malaysian Grand Prix retirement

Add as preferred source on Google

Francesco Bagnaia’s confusing situation at Ducati has gotten more baffling after a rear tyre puncture forced him out of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Italian was desperate to find some performance at Sepang after failing to score points in the previous two events. There have been rumours of a tense relationship between Bagnaia and Ducati, as the rider vents his frustration towards the team for his issues with the bike.

Despite making numerous changes to his GP25 throughout the season, including recently adding GP24 spec parts, he has struggled to be competitive. In Malaysia, Ducati tried to give Bagnaia ‘his Desmosedici’ by going back to the set-up from the Sepang test.

While it looked like things would not improve as he failed to go straight through to Q2, the 28-year-old managed to secure his third pole position of 2025. Bagnaia admitted he was ‘lucky’ to get pole as Q1 allowed him to try different things with his bike.

He followed up his qualifying performance by winning the Sprint on Saturday. But despite the win, Bagnaia said Ducati are still ‘in trouble’ as they cannot understand his inconsistent results – he was right to be sceptical as he suffered his third consecutive Grand Prix retirement on Sunday.

Michele Pirro tells Francesco Bagnaia not to forget his ‘awareness’ inside Ducati garage after Malaysian Grand Prix

Bagnaia enjoyed a great start to the Malaysian Grand Prix, but he lost his lead to Alex Marquez on lap two. He could not keep pace with the Gresini rider as he soon came under attack from Pedro Acosta.

The KTM rider eventually made it past the Ducati rider, who looked like he would settle for a decent P3. However, in the closing stages, Bagnaia slowed down as he looked to have an issue with the rear of his bike.

It was later discovered that the Italian had suffered a puncture to his rear tyre, which dropped him out of the points. Bagnaia brought his bike into the pits to retire, with the factory Ducati team failing to score points for the second race in a row.

Michele Pirro finished 17th in the race, almost 44 seconds behind race winner Marquez. In a behind-the-scenes video from Ducati after the race on X (formerly Twitter), the test rider, who was standing in for the injured Marc Marquez, was heard advising Bagnaia.

He told him: “Awareness. Do not forget it,” as Bagnaia walked away looking despondent with yet another retirement in 2025.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Francesco Bagnaia from net worth to race number

Francesco Bagnaia has lost third in the standings again after Malaysian Grand Prix DNF

With three non-points finishes in the last three Grand Prix, Bagnaia is now under huge pressure to secure P3 in the standings for Ducati.

Bagnaia had reclaimed third from Marco Bezzecchi with his Sprint win. However, he finds himself back down to fourth after his DNF on Sunday.

Fortunately for the Italian, Bezzecchi could only manage 11th in the Grand Prix, which puts him only five points ahead of Bagnaia with two races to go. He has time to reclaim the position, but Acosta is putting the pressure on him in fifth.

Michael Laverty ‘didn’t expect’ Acosta to pull away from Bagnaia as much as he did in Sepang. He is now 26 points behind the Ducati rider and he will be looking to break into the top four for KTM.