Francesco Bagnaia (crash) in a slump: “No feeling, no grip”

Even Saturday’s sprint race had not bode well. Starting from 10th on the grid, Ducati works rider Francesco Bagnaia finished eighth, ten seconds behind his team-mate Marc Marquez, and drew a sobering conclusion.

He cited a lack of grip as the main problem; for the GP, the team wanted to find more support at the rear wheel. A place in the top eight was realistic, said the Italian. Could the problems be resolved overnight?

Front tyre pressure too low; Bagnaia crashed whilst pushing

The answer was clear-cut. Bagnaia was in 10th place when he went down on lap 5. “I just crashed. No feeling, no grip, and I crashed,” he summarised succinctly, remaining extremely tight-lipped.

Willkommen zum Rennen in Mandalika

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Pedro Acosta

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Alex Márquez

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Marco Bezzecchi

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Marc Márquez

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Start des Rennens

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Jorge Martin

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Ai Ogura und Pedro Acosta

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Luca Marini

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Raúl Fernández

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Marco Bezzecchi

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Quartararo und Binder

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Ai Ogura und Marc Márquez

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Enea Bastianini

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Alex Márquez und Fabio Di Giannantonio

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Marc Márquez und Pedro Acosta

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Marco Bezzecchi gewinnt das Rennen

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Sieger Marco Bezzecchi

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Fernández, Bezzecchi, Martin

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Sieger Marco Bezzecchi

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Willkommen zum Rennen in Mandalika

© Gold & Goose

The crash didn’t come as a surprise to him. He’d been trying to catch up with Luca Marini (Honda) to raise his front tyre pressure again whilst in his slipstream. “But I asked too much of the rear tyre at that moment. It didn’t hold up.” And just like that, Bagnaia slid into the Indonesian gravel trap.

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MotoGP World Championship

22.10.2026 - 23:55

A worrying trend: ‘Pecco’ has been crashing regularly since Brno

For the two-time MotoGP World Champion, this is his eighth race of the season in which he has scored no points – not counting the sprints. In the World Championship standings, he has dropped to ninth place with 166 points. Just how dramatic this dip in form is can be seen from the comparison: in the first nine races up to and including Brno, Bagnaia scored 127 points and stood on the podium several times. Since Assen, he has added just 39 points across eight races.

Brno was also his last podium finish in a Grand Prix; his last victory was over a year ago: Motegi 2025. He has five Grand Prix races left to bring the season – and his time at Ducati – to a satisfactory conclusion. On Saturday, he had named Sepang as the track he was most looking forward to. First, however, he heads to Phillip Island, where he needs what has been missing for months: feel and grip.