MotoGP Buriram: Bagnaia ‘struggling, we to understand’

Ducati Lenovo’s Pecco Bagnaia is looking for redemption in Thailand after a last-lap disaster at Motegi.

With title-rival Fabio Quartararo the only member of the leading trio to score points last time out, Bagnaia is pushing for a strong Round 17 - the Italian having crashed out on the wheels of the series leader in the battle for a somewhat lacklustre eighth.

“I’m still thinking and analysing everything,” Bagnaia said of the Japanese race. “We have to understand why I was struggling on acceleration and why I was losing time to other bikes.

“I got stuck behind Pol Espargaro for a lot of laps and it was impossible to overtake him so we had to understand that and maybe this weekend we’ll find something that will help us.

“In any case, the weekend had been quite strange for the conditions, for everything, for being on wet I was struggling so much when in the past I was competitive, so we have to understand. I wasn’t able to push like I wanted because I was behind somebody who was slower on the braking, and braking less than me, so I got stuck.

“If I think about the crash, the objective was just to get in front of Fabio, okay it was one more point, but I think it was too ambitious in that moment because I was trying to overtake from too far. The only lucky thing was I didn’t touch him in the crash, this was the only positive.

“Compared to last year the only thing I have changed is the balance of our bike, so maybe for that reason I’m struggling more,” he continued. “The difficult thing is that we haven’t had too many wet sessions this year, so I didn’t have the feeling in Japan. I was not feeling the tyres and when I’m in this situation, I’m struggling more.

“I think we have some good ideas to help me feel more, the movement,