Pecco Bagnaia: Online advice from Dani Pedrosa and 6th place in the Sprint

For Ducati works rider Pecco Bagnaia, Day 2 of the Austrian Grand Prix went from strength to strength. The two-time MotoGP world champion had only just made it through to Q2 and continued to make up ground in the sprint.

Thomas Kuttruf

MotoGP

19.09.2026 - 18:55

This article is an automatically generated English version. The Original Article was published in German.

Pecco Bagnaia gelang beim Spielberg-Sprint mit Platz 6 wieder ein Erfolg
© Gold and Goose

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Francesco Bagnaia

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Despite very small time differences, Ducati factory rider Pecco Bagnaia was in very low spirits after finishing 18th in qualifying. He simply couldn’t get that crucial feel for the rear tyre going into the corners. The next morning, however, Bagnaia seemed like a different rider altogether – and was back in the thick of the MotoGP action.

Bagnaia briefly led FP2 and ultimately finished a creditable fifth. The gap to the front had halved to four tenths. The Turin-born rider carried that pace into Q1. He progressed to the final qualifying session alongside Honda rider Johann Zarco. In the top 12 shootout, I improved further – this position was a result that had seemed unattainable as recently as Friday.

In the 14-lap sprint in Styria, Pecco Bagnaia kept up a high pace. The number 63 held his starting position throughout the race. When Pedro Acosta crashed out on his KTM in the final, Bagnaia finished sixth – a ray of hope for the Italian, who had recently been underperforming.

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Mentioned in this article

Francesco Bagnaia

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Bagnaia’s opening remarks at the media debrief: “I think people can start joking with me again today.” That said a lot, but Bagnaia elaborated: “The changes to the set-up have brought an improvement. It wasn’t quite the full step forward, but I was able to steer the bike into the corners better today. Perhaps we’ll manage to improve that even further for Sunday.”

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