MotoGP Mandalika: Strange race for Bagnaia - ‘I have a lot of questions’

Pecco Bagnaia had a second race to forget as his 2022 MotoGP Championship challenge faltered in the wet conditions of the IndonesianGP.

Having crashed out of Qatar’s season opener, the Ducati Lenovo rider was back to his confident best as the action returned to Lombok, the site of February’s preseason test. Lining up on the second row after qualifying sixth, Bagnaia had previous race winner Enea Bastianini alongside and teammate Jack Miller one row behind.

With rain hitting the Mandalika Circuit half an hour before the race was scheduled to start, a sodden, recently resurfaced track welcomed the shortened 20-lap battle 75 minutes later than planned. Bagnaia’s previous wet weather prowess on the Desmosedici should have held him in good stead, but it was not be.

“I have a lot of questions about my race,” the Italian said on Sunday night after crossing the finish line in 15th place. “I have to understand a lot of things on what today didn’t work. Because it’s strange that in the test in Malaysia, I was with a really great feeling the wet. In the test here, in the first session I was very strong in the wet and my feeling was incredible like always.

“Today, I was struggling a lot from the start. Already in the first braking I was feeling strange. On the first braking on the race I lose a lot of positions, then when I was trying to push a bit more I was losing the front always.

“I had the luck to don’t crash in the finish of the straight because I was quite fast and was a bit scary.

“Looking also at the tyres, have not worked, so maybe I was not pushing like I had to do but looks strange. I’m quite disappointed and I’m sure not happy about this weekend. This morning in the warm-up I was very competitive. With used tyres I was