Which Francesco Bagnaia will MotoGP see at Phillip Island: The Motegi model who stormed to a dominant double from pole, or the Misano-Mandalika model who struggled badly both aspect of that excellent weekend?
That’s the important thing query heading into the Australian Grand Prix, the place Bagnaia will line up as Ducati Lenovo’s lone full-time rider following team-mate and newly topped world champion Marc Marquez’s shoulder damage.
Struggling for front-end confidence on nook entry all season, Bagnaia’s fortunes had been out of the blue reworked by a change again to older GP24 elements on the Misano check after which Motegi.
But the identical points reappeared, on the revised bike, only a week later at Mandalika, the place he suffered his worst occasion of the MotoGP season.
“We’re coming into this race after an advanced weekend; we’re working exhausting to grasp precisely what occurred at Mandalika,” Bagnaia mentioned.
“The purpose is to get again to the identical feeling we had on the observe at Motegi”.
If the Italian can rediscover that type – and with former Phillip Island winners Marc Marquez, Jorge Martin and Maverick Vinales all sidelined by means of damage – he might be among the many favourites to take a long-awaited first Australian Grand Prix victory.
“Phillip Island is a spectacular circuit, breathtaking, particularly on a high-performance bike like a MotoGP bike. It is really lovely!” Bagnaia mentioned of the quick and flowing seaside circuit.
“Lately, I’ve all the time been quick and constant right here, regardless that with out victory.”
Bagnaia begins the ultimate 4 rounds having slipped 88 factors behind Alex Marquez within the combat for title runner-up and is now solely 20 factors away from Bezzecchi.
