Neil Hodgson feels Francesco Bagnaia’s “horrific” crash in practice for the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday will not shine on the bike he was uncomfortable with.
Bagnaya He traveled in the gravel after two minutes in qualifying practice at Jerez. of Ducati Ace crashed in Turn 1 and sent the Desmosedici GP26 flying around the racetrack, the first of several incidents involving braking.
Two-time MotoGP champion Bagnaia struggled to control the rear of the Ducati GP26 with braking throughout the 60-minute session to close out the first day. Spanish GP. Back on the track, Bagnaya’s rear tire continued to bounce from side to side under braking.
Bagnaia finally managed to put his earlier crash behind him to secure a place in the Jerez automatic in Q2 for Saturday’s Spanish GP qualifying session. The 29-year-old set a flying lap late on Friday to finish with the sixth-fastest lap time, although he was 0.561 off the fastest lap.
Alex Marquez sets a high benchmark in Jerez practice! Which rider will join this lot in Q2 on Saturday?
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Francesco Bagnaia MotoGP ‘great’ does not have the ability to ride around the problems
Gresini star Alex Marquez, who won last year’s Spanish GP for his first MotoGP Grand Prix win, put his speed in action this Friday. Márquez topped his training session at Jerez. At 1:35.704, Bagnaya set a personal best time of 1:36.265 at the end of the clock.
Read more: The best moments of Francesco Bagnaia’s MotoGP career
How Bagnaia finished practice in Jerez was very different to how he started when he crashed behind Gresini Marquez while braking at Turn 1. Hodgson Ducati is quick to point out that Bagnaia’s failure will boost his confidence as he tries to build up the Italian fan base.
Hodgson said. TNT Sports 2 (24/04, 14:04): “Get out, yes, brutal, when you lose that, it’s always brutal.”
“You can imagine what they (Ducati pit wall) are thinking now. We’ve had three-and-a-half weeks off, we’ve arrived here, we’re trying to rebuild a bit of confidence, a bit of emotion, and those take away confidence. That’s the problem.
Bagnaia’s crash also convinced Hodgson that the Turin native cannot deliver when he is not 100% comfortable on the bike, as MotoGP “greats” such as Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez – both of whom can fight their bikes to get the best results.
Francesco Bagnaia crashes just two minutes into practice at Jerez – will his brake woes end before he joins Aprilia?
Hodgson added: “If anything, you can even criticize him a bit, because sometimes if the bike isn’t right, it’s hard to get through that.”
The absolute greats of our sport, and I’m thinking about this guy[Marc Marquez]I’m thinking about Valentino Rossi, can go through those problems on bad days when you’ve got a little bit of a wrong tire, settings are off and you don’t quite understand it. They still somehow managed to bring home the win, or at least the podium.
Bagnaia, the 2022 and 2023 riders’ champion, didn’t get on with the Ducati GP26 as he would have liked, braking on the latest generation of Desmosedici, a particular problem. Braking issues in Jerez on Friday were far from a rare sight this season.
Speaking at the Spanish GP on Thursday, Bagnaia admitted that he “completely changed” his braking style for GP26as well as. The bike has the same “DNA” as the GP25, which he also rode last year, and he couldn’t believe how well the Ducati bike performed.
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