Marco Bezzecchi
Ducati boss Luigi Dall’Igna wants to speak to Francesco Bagnaia about his Sprint Race at the 2026 MotoGP Hungarian Grand Prix, after making life “complicated” for himself.
Bagnaia has endured a largely frustrating weekend at Balaton Park during round eight of the 2026 season. The 29-year-old had arrived in Hungary hot off the back of taking a podium in his home Grand Prix with P3 in Italy last week, but he immediately lost all of his momentum.
Pace had proven to be hard to unlock throughout practice at the Hungarian GP, with Bagnaia having to go through Q1 in qualifying after finishing Friday down in P14. He left it late to seal a spot in Q2, as well, before going on to qualify P5 as teammate Marc Marquez scored pole.
Yet while Marquez converted pole to win the Balaton Park Sprint, Bagnaia dropped back and finished P9. From the middle of the second row, the two-time champion briefly had a look at gaining places around the outside at Turn 1, but instead fell backwards and offered no reply.
Total domination by Marc Marquez in the Balaton Park Sprint 💪 But who was your rider of the race?
Luigi Dall’Igna blames Francesco Bagnaia’s bleak Balaton Park Sprint Race on his start
Ducati general manager Dall’Igna believes “the conditions were there” for Bagnaia to deliver a stronger result than P9 for one point in the Sprint at the Hungarian GP. The Turin native hit the chequered flag 8.237 seconds behind Marquez, and he was even 4.264s adrift of Gresini star Fermin Aldeguer in P5 who lost a podium on his Ducati GP25 after an error-strewn race.
READ MORE: Marc Marquez takes a dominant Balaton Park Sprint win over Pedro Acosta
Bagnaia’s plight in the Balaton Park Sprint disappointed Dall’Igna, who saw the Italian’s race fall apart from the very start. The 2022 and 2023 MotoGP champion then could not attack the Sprint as he pleased, and only just held VR46 rival Fabio Di Giannantonio off by 0.232s
Dall’Igna told Sky Sports Italy: “I want to speak to him. The conditions were there to do a bit more. Then the start, or rather not so much the start, as the first corner didn’t go as we expected, and then things got complicated from there.”
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez from P7 on the grid and LCR gem Diogo Moreira from P11 put moves on Bagnaia on the first lap of the Sprint at the Hungarian GP. Fernandez seized on the Ducati star getting squeezed wide into Turn 1, and Moreira was soon pulling a move into T5.
Aprilia rider Jorge Martin also forced a move on Bagnaia at the end of the first lap, and Enea Bastianini of Tech3 – his former works Ducati teammate – soon got past on Lap 3. VR46 star Di Giannantonio arguably had more pace than Bagnaia, too, but he could not force a move.
Bagnaia struggled for rear grip in practice at Balaton Park on Friday, but he felt Marquez and Di Giannantonio’s data would help him to recover on Saturday. It ultimately did not prove to be the case, as Marquez scored pole for the Hungarian GP with a 1:36.785 and Bagnaia only recorded a 1:37.317. Di Giannantonio qualified P4 but plummeted at the start of the Sprint.
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