– Francesco Bagnaia has already stood on the podium three times at the Sachsenring, but this time he experienced a difficult weekend and was overshadowed by his Ducati teammate Marc Marquez.
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In Friday’s practice, he missed direct Q2 qualification by finishing 13th. “I feel like I’m on ice. I feel like I’m riding flat track,” he cited as the reason for the problems.
“My problem since the start of the season has been rear wheel grip. And this track, sectors 2 and 3 require a lot of support from the rear tire. I have zero, completely zero.”
With the best time in Q1, he made the jump into Q2. Bagnaia qualified tenth and scored three world championship points as seventh in the sprint. However, the grip problems continued to haunt him.
As soon as the rear tire wore out, he had to use the front tire too much. “I can’t use the slide like the other Ducati riders,” says Bagnaia. “I have no grip.”
“As soon as I make the bike slide, I can’t accelerate. So I have to keep both tires on the ideal line. And I have a lot of understeer.”
“I took a lot of risks. The front wheel broke loose everywhere.” That’s why Bagnaia decided to bring the result home. The same was true in the Grand Prix.
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Tire wear was somewhat better in the long race, but he still felt no grip: “I have no grip on the rear wheel, I can’t use the rear wheel to turn the bike and accelerate.”
Bagnaia engaged in a close battle with Aprilia rider Jorge Martin, but ultimately had to concede. The risk would have been too great. Therefore, he took sixth place with him.
“I might have had to risk too much to overtake him, and a crash would not have been a good idea. So I learned from the past that it is always a better idea to finish the race.”
With 143 points, Bagnaia goes into the summer break as sixth in the world championship. His deficit to the top is 65 world championship points. Technical failures cost him several good results.
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But the main problem remains grip: “The only Ducati rider who has the same problems as me is Alex. He had the same problems as me before Jerez, then they solved it. So I really hope this summer break will help the team understand what to do.”
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