Ducati boss Luigi Daleigna wants to talk to Francesco Bagna about Sprint racing at the 2026 MotoGP Hungarian Grand Prix after making life “complicated” for himself.
Bagnaya He endured a frustrating weekend at Balaton Park in round eight of the 2026 season. The 29-year-old arrived in Hungary last week warming up behind the podium at his home Grand Prix with the Italian P3, but immediately lost energy.
Pace proved to be difficult to open throughout practice Hungarian GPBagnaia should go through Q1 after finishing P14 on Friday. He left late to close down a place in Q2 before going on to qualify P5 when team-mate Marc Marquez scored pole.
While still Marquez changed the pole to the Balaton Park SprintBagnaia fell back and finished P9. Starting in the middle of the second row, the two-time champion briefly looked to gain places around the outside at Turn 1, but fell back and had no response.
Marc Marquez dominates the Balaton Park Sprint 💪 But who was the rider of the race?
Luigi Daleigna blamed Francesco Bagnaia for a bad start to the Balaton Park sprint.
The general manager of Ducati Dale Igna Bagnaia believes “the conditions were there” for him to score a point stronger than P9 in the Hungarian GP in Sprint. The Turin native hit the checkered flag 8.237s ahead of Marquez and he was 4.264s adrift of Gresini star Fermin Aldeguer in P5, who lost a podium after a mishap on his Ducati GP25.
Read more: Marc Marquez won the Balaton Park Sprint, dominating Pedro Acosta
Bagnaia’s Balaton Park sprint upset Dale Igna, who saw the Italian’s race fall apart from the start. The 2022 and 2023 MotoGP champion was unable to attack the sprint as he wanted and just edged out his VR46 rival Fabio Di Gianntonio by 0.232s.
Dale Igna told him. Sky Sports ItalyI want to talk to him. It was a prerequisite to doing a little more. Then things got complicated as the start, or rather the start, the first corner didn’t go as we expected.
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez from P7 on the grid and LCR gem Diogo Moreira from P11 at Bagnaia will move into the first round of the Sprint at the Hungarian GP. Fernandez caught the Ducati star and squeezed wide into Turn 1, and Moreira was soon pulling into T5.
Aprilia rider Jorge Martin forced a switch to Bagnia at the end of the first lap, and Tech3’s NA Bastianini – his former Ducati team-mate – soon passed him on lap three. VR46 star Di Giannantonio argues that he has more pace than Bagnaia, but is unable to force a move.
Bagnaia struggled to hold back at Balaton Park. On Friday, however, he felt the information from Marquez and Di Giantantonio would help him recover on Saturday. It was not to be in the end as Márquez took pole for the Hungarian GP with just 1:36.785 and Bagnaia 1:37.317. Di Giannantonio qualified P4 but crashed early in the sprint.
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