Pecco Bagnaia left bemused after crashing when “I was the fastest, I was cruising”

Francesco Bagnaia suffered another setback in his hopes of defending his MotoGP crown, after falling from the lead in the sprint race at Catalunya.

Bagnaia looked poised to end his sprint race drought before losing the front-end of his Ducati at turn five on the final lap.

Bemused by what happened, Bagnaia said: “I waited for one hour in the box to analyse everything. When you can’t understand properly why you crashed it’s important to analyse everything.

“It looks like slower entry with the same amount of brakes can make you crash. Normally, in normal conditions it can’t happen but here the grip level is a disaster so it can happen.

“We have to analyse it and understand it to be more careful of this situation for tomorrow. The race is longer, hotter and it is important to finish.

“It’s now three races in a row where we were really strong for the sprint race but we haven’t finished because of problems or crashing.

“We lost another great opportunity today. I was the fastest, I was leading, I was cruising and it wasn’t enough.

“We have to take the positive from today, which is a lot. But it will be important to finish.

“It looks like I have problems here finishing the races. But it will be important to do it.”

Bagnaia also played down any suggestions that he lost focus, saying: “No, I was 100% focused and I know how to win.

“It was my kind of win because I was in control with a lot of tyre [left] and with much pace and was doing everything perfectly.

“It is very curious when you look at my data because when I crashed it is really strange in that kind of situation.

“It was also strange that every rider that was leading crashed today. This was strange. We have to understand this for tomorrow.”

Aleix Espargaro went on to win for the third consecutive race (includes sprints) in Barcelona as a result of Bagnaia’s mistake.

And post-race Bagnaia was asked about several mistakes that Espargaro apparently alluded to him making.

But Bagnaia refuted the idea he was making mistakes prior to going down at turn five.

“I had a little issue with the bike but I don’t see which mistakes Aleix has seen,” said Bagnaia.

“I was just faster. It’s true that exiting corner 5 I had a little problem with the gearbox, but apart from that I didn’t make any other mistakes.”