Marco Bezzecchi
Sylvain Guintoli thinks Francesco Bagnaia cannot deliver under “pressure” on Ducati’s 2026 MotoGP bike after seeing his woes during qualifying for the Thailand Grand Prix.
Bagnaia has begun the 2026 MotoGP season in almost a worst-case scenario, after he failed to advance from Q1 in the first qualifying session of the year in Buriram on Saturday. The 29-year-old fell short as Raul Fernandez of Trackhouse and VR46’s Franco Morbidelli advanced.
Fernandez set the pace in Q1 with a 1:28.784 to lead Morbidelli on his Ducati GP25 by 0.306 seconds and Bagnaia on his factory Desmosedici GP26 by 0.564s. The Trackhouse ace also utilised his Q1 run to go on and qualify in P3, just 0.224s off Marco Bezzecchi’s pole position.
Bezzecchi scored pole for the Thailand GP with a 1:28.652, which was just enough for him to deny Bagnaia’s factory Ducati teammate Marc Marquez pole by only 0.035s. Marquez pulled a rapid lap out of the bag late on, while VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio sealed P4 on his GP26.
Marc Marquez got within 0.035s of Marco Bezzecchi’s Thailand GP pole position lap
Who surprised you the most during qualifying in Buriram?
Sylvain Guintoli feels Francesco Bagnaia cannot deliver under ‘pressure’ at the Thailand Grand Prix
Gresini star Alex Marquez also qualified P7 for the season-opening Thailand GP on his Ducati GP26. But after Bagnaia rued set-up decisions for failing to claim an automatic place in Q2 in Buriram during practice, he could not find the speed to progress and join the battle for pole.
READ MORE: All you need to know about the 2026 MotoGP season from calendar to riders
Seeing Bagnaia fail to deliver a quick lap when it mattered in Q1 left Guintoli with the feeling that the Italian has still not found the solution for his struggles last year. His woe also boosts the belief that the Aprilia RS-GP has edged the Ducati Desmosedici as MotoGP’s best bike.
Guintoli said on TNT Sports 2 (28/02, 04:13): “It’s a tough one. It looks like Pecco is on the back foot again, just like last year. We thought he’d sorted the problems, and everything went much better during the winter testing in Sepang, and here as well only last week.
“So, when it looks like when the pressure is on, Pecco is not able to deliver with that bike. When he’s trying to push the bike over its limit, it’s making things worse and making him slower. So, I mean, the Ducati is still there. It’s still definitely in the mix.
“The big problem that Ducati have is that the Aprilia has made a big jump. They did a big jump during the year last year, and again in [the] winter, they’ve gone to work, and they’ve come here with solutions for that tyre.
“They’ve come here with better stability and better stability on the brake, like Paolo Bonora was describing, and all the riders are benefiting from it.”
Pecco Bagnaia paid the price for Ducati not adapting to Michelin’s treated rear tyre
Bagnaia was one of the front-running riders at the 2026 Sepang test, and his race simulation even put rival teams on alert. Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola suggested Ducati’s rivals could “go home” given Bagnaia’s speed in Sepang, with only Alex Marquez’s race simulation stronger.
Yet Bagnaia still needed to prove that he had actually bounced back from his miserable 2025 season when the 2026 campaign began for real. The two-time champion fell to fifth place in the MotoGP riders’ championship last term, after failing to adapt to Ducati’s 2025-spec bike.
READ MORE: The best moments of Francesco Bagnaia’s MotoGP career
Francesco Bagnaia bows out in Q1 at the 2026 Thailand Grand Prix!
Is Pecco Bagnaia facing another season of woe at Ducati?
His plight during qualifying in Buriram would suggest that Bagnaia still has more work to do. But Guintoli feels Bagnaia’s woes are probably also be tied to Ducati still not adapting to the rear tyre that Michelin offers to address thermal challenges in hot conditions, unlike Aprilia.
Guintoli said (04:08): “Pecco two years ago here did a new lap record in the 28.7s, and he’s just done a 29.3. That’s half a second slower.
“Where has that gone? You can see on track, he’s just struggling with that rear grip. He can’t hook the bike up, not getting the drive out of the corners and not producing the lap time.
“Sector one for the Ducati is OK. But as soon as you get into the twisty bit where you need to hook the bike up, you need that side grip to make the bike turn, he’s overshooting the corners. He can’t turn it. Look at that, [he’s] running wide everywhere and not able to do it.
“This weekend, we’ve got a new best bike in MotoGP, haven’t we? The Aprilia has overtaken the Ducati package. Is that down to that rear tyre, that special construction rear tyre for hot conditions? Probably. But the Aprilia is looking so good, and all of the Ducati riders are struggling a little bit.”
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