Fuel tank blamed again for “angry” Pecco Bagnaia’s Qatar MotoGP sprint slump

Pecco Bagnaia has again blamed the fuel tank on his factory Ducati for his struggles to get to eighth in MotoGP’s Qatar Grand Prix sprint.

The Italian was in strong form on Friday during practice and looked in a position to at least challenge for the podium, if not victory, against team-mate Marc Marquez.

But Pecco Bagnaia’s Saturday was a disaster, as a crash in qualifying left him 11th on the grid, and from there he could only get to eighth - 10.334s adrift of sprint winning team-mate Marquez.

Bagnaia has previously pointed the finger at his sprint troubles at the fuel tank he has to use in the shorter races, which changes the balance of his Ducati to such a degree that he can’t overtake on it.

This is something that he says was the problem on Saturday evening in Qatar, but doesn’t expect it to affect him in the grand prix - something that makes him “angry”.

“Starting from P11, I was expecting a bit to struggle today in the sprint because it’s already three seasons that when I’m not starting well in the front and I have to start from behind I’m struggling to overtake riders,” Bagnaia said.

“And we are trying to understand why, but it’s always the same situation, I feel always the same.

“And the only difference is the fuel tank, so we need to improve a bit. I have to improve on it.

“I’m more confident for tomorrow because I know that my potential and my pace could be much stronger tomorrow.”

He added: “The problem is that because every time I’m struggling to make an overtake and be aggressive on braking.

“And on Sundays it’s a totally different feeling and I’m again overtaking six, seven riders each lap.

“So, this is the main thing that is making more angry because if I can do it on Sunday I need to do it on Saturday. But we are working on it.”

Pecco Bagnaia explains Qatar qualifying crash

Bagnaia crashed in the latter stages of Q2 while sitting a provisional ninth, which he says was down to “something not working as I expected” in his first run.

Trying to make up for lost time, he admits he pushed too hard on the way into Turn 4 and that’s what caused the crash.

“Yesterday, also this morning I was feeling fantastic on the bike,” Bagnaia explained.

“And also the qualifying, apart from the first attempt, where something didn’t work as I expected, and the second attempt everything was fine but I just crashed.

“I entered into corner four a bit too fast and I lost it. It’s my mistake because when you don’t have a good first attempt, you need to be more calm because you need this lap.

“But if you don’t try in this moment you never try. So, I was there fighting for the pole position but I entered too fast [into the corner].”

Starting the weekend 12 points off the championship lead, he is now 21 points back after scoring two for eighth in the Qatar sprint.

He takes that as a positive as “it was a day to take zero”, but concedes these types of results are no good when battling Marc Marquez for a championship.

“At least we took two points where maybe it was a day to take zero,” he said.

“So, we know how important every single point is and we have to just continue like this.

“Surely for the future we need to improve because it’s not possible to finish eighth when you are fighting against a rider like Marc.

“So, for the future we need to improve on it and also tomorrow it will be important to gain as many points as possible, or lose [as little] as possible.”

As far as his strategy to make up ground from 11th in the grand prix goes, Bagnaia noted:  “Tomorrow I will overtake 10 in one lap, I will try. A new record.”