MotoGP Qatar: ‘I’m not a tester, I’m here to win’ - Bagnaia

Pecco Bagnaia’s 2022 MotoGP season got off to a frustrating start after the Ducati Lenovo rider finished the Qatar GP in the gravel.

Having already suffered a poor start, especially by the Bologna factory’s standards, last year’s runner up found himself fighting back from 16th in the opening laps, running a highest of ninth at mid-race distance before a collision with Jorge Martin’s Pramac saw them both out of the action.

“The crash was nothing,” Bagnaia said on Sunday evening. “I was recovering position but my speed was not so high and I was losing too much time in acceleration and we have to understand why. I was a bit late to entry on Jorge, but the braking was not too hard, was not a really hard brake. So has been quite strange to have this front locking in this moment but is like this. I have just to say sorry to Ducati, to Pramac and to Jorge first of all and just to focus on the next race.”

It had failed to be the strongest of weekend across the board for the Italian, with Bagnaia lining up ninth on the grid after a disappointing qualifying and running on the fringes of the top ten throughout practice. His issue, he explained, was the lack of time to adjust himself to his new, hybrid, Desmosedici.

“It’s strange because if we look at all the new Ducati, have started so bad,” Bagnaia said of the poor performance across the Ducati fleet - barring Enea Bastianini’s stunning work with the GP21.

“We have lost a lot of position. I was 16th turn three! So it was not the best start for sure. Then I started to push to recover the position but we were not ready at all to fight for the win today.

“Was too ambitious to think on the victory but we tried all to recover position. My pace was not so bad, was quite good thinking on