Marco Bezzecchi
Neil Hodgson feels Francesco Bagnaia’s “brutal” crash during practice at the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday shows he cannot shine on a bike that he is not comfortable with.
Bagnaia took a trip through the gravel after just two minutes during the timed pre-qualifying practice session at Jerez. The Ducati ace fell at Turn 1 and sent his Desmosedici GP26 flying through the run-off area, after what proved to be his first of several incidents under braking.
Two-time MotoGP champion Bagnaia struggled to control the rear of his Ducati GP26 under braking throughout the 60-minute session to close the first day at the Spanish GP. Bagnaia’s rear tyre continued to jump from side-to-side under braking when he returned to the track.
Bagnaia ultimately managed to put his early crash behind him to secure an automatic spot in Q2 at Jerez for Saturday’s Spanish GP qualifying session. The 29-year-old produced a very late flying lap to finish Friday with the sixth-fastest lap time, albeit 0.561s off the fastest lap.
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Francesco Bagnaia lacks the ability of MotoGP ‘greats’ to ride around his problems
Gresini star Alex Marquez, who won the Spanish GP last year for his first MotoGP Grand Prix victory, set the pace in practice this Friday. Marquez topped the practice timesheet at Jerez with a 1:35.704, while Bagnaia set a personal-best time of a 1:36.265 at the end of the hour.
READ MORE: The best moments of Francesco Bagnaia’s MotoGP career
How Bagnaia finished practice at Jerez was very different from how he started it by crashing whilst braking directly behind Gresini’s Marquez at Turn 1. Hodgson immediately noted that Bagnaia’s crash will zap his confidence, right as Ducati are trying to build the Italian back up.
Hodgson said on TNT Sports 2 (24/04, 14:04): “Get off. Yeah, brutal. It’s always brutal when you lose that.
“You can imagine what these [the Ducati pit wall] are all thinking now. We’ve had the three and a half weeks off, we’ve come here, we’re trying to rebuild a bit of confidence, a bit of feel, and those crashes zap confidence. That’s the problem.”
Bagnaia’s crash also convinced Hodgson that the Turin native is not able to deliver when he does not feel 100% comfortable with his bike, unlike the “greats” of MotoGP like Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez – both of whom could wrestle their bikes to secure the best result.
Francesco Bagnaia crashed just two minutes into practice at Jerez – Will his braking problems end before he joins Aprilia?
Hodgson added: “If anything, you could maybe even criticise him a little bit, because sometimes he’s got so much feel that if the bike’s not quite right, he finds it hard to push through that.
“The absolute greats of our sport, and I’m obviously thinking of this man [Marc Marquez], I’m thinking of Valentino Rossi, can ride through those problems on bad days when you’ve got a slightly faulty tyre on, the settings are off and you’ve just not quite got it right. They still somehow managed to bring home a victory, or at least the podium.”
Bagnaia has not gelled with the Ducati GP26 as well as he would have liked, with braking on the latest generation of the Desmosedici a particular problem for the 2022 and 2023 riders’ champion. His issues under braking at Jerez on Friday were far from a rare sight this season.
Speaking on Thursday at the Spanish GP, Bagnaia admitted he has “completely changed” his braking style for the GP26, as well. The bike has the same “DNA” as the GP25, which he also struggled aboard last year, and he does not feel able to trust how Ducati’s bike will behave.
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