Francesco Bagnaia’s hopes of constructing momentum within the 2025 MotoGP title race suffered an extra blow throughout Saturday’s Dash at Le Mans.
Unable to problem new team-mate Marc Marquez for race lengthy tempo thus far this yr, Bagnaia had a minimum of prevented any of the crashes that blighted final yr’s doomed title defence in opposition to Jorge Martin.
Till Saturday’s Le Mans Dash that’s.
The Italian, who arrived in France resigned to the truth that he received’t be capable to resurrect final yr’s GP24 feeling on the revised GP25, made his first main race mistake of the season when he misplaced the entrance into the Dunlop chicane on lap 2.
Bagnaia, fourth on the time, walked away together with his head in his fingers whereas Gigi Dall’Igna expressed related disappointment within the Ducati pit field.
The autumn ended his good run of factors within the earlier ten races and has left Bagnaia 29 factors behind Alex Marquez and 31 from Marc Marquez.
Whereas Bagnaia continues to battle with entrance feeling within the Dash, rejecting a brand new gas tank, Marc continued his unbeaten Saturday run with an ideal sixth win of the season.
“This morning, FP2 was tremendous good. I used to be feeling nice and prepared for the qualifying. Then qualifying I did a multitude,” Bagnaia instructed MotoGP.com. “Unluckily I am not quick with the gentle entrance tyre, I am struggling to push like I need and I do know that different riders are stronger than me with the gentle entrance. However sixth place just isn’t that unhealthy on this monitor.”
Francesco Bagnaia, 2025 French MotoGP Dash
“My feeling with the entrance just isn’t there”
Whereas there was ‘zero’ warning, the kind of fall wouldn’t have come as a shock for Bagnaia, who has been struggling for entrance feeling on the GP25 since pre-season testing.
“No, zero [warning]. I used to be a bit slower, with much less lean angle, however I nonetheless misplaced the entrance,” he defined. “When you do not really feel the entrance, you possibly can crash like this with out having the ability to predict what the entrance is doing.”
“Unluckily, from the beginning of the season, my feeling with the entrance just isn’t there,” Bagnaia continued. “And crashes like this could occur. So we simply want to resolve the issue and attempt to look ahead for perceive the state of affairs.”
Bagnaia – who has normally felt higher with the usual gas tank on Sundays – now hopes to ship on his prime two potential within the grand prix.
“I believe that if I can survive the primary two laps, Nook 3, I can have a risk!” he mentioned. “I really feel good with the bike, aside from the entrance, however I believe that we will combat for the highest two.
“In the present day the tempo was there. Tomorrow the tempo can be there, even with the double the space I could be extra sturdy. So I’ll attempt to shut the hole and attempt to do one other step in entrance, as a result of I actually need to repair one thing from the entrance.”
The final time Bagnaia crashed in a Dash race was through the penultimate 2024 spherical at Sepang, a second that handed Martin an essential benefit within the title chase.
Francesco Bagnaia, 2025 French MotoGP Dash
