Given he was 10 places back on the grid for both the sprint and the Sunday race, Pecco Bagnaia may well soothe himself by taking just a 15-point hit relative to title rival Marc Marquez in the Qatar Grand Prix.
But it should be difficult to see it that way - and Marquez's comments after the weekend, a weekend he repeatedly described as "the most important so far", show why.
"With a circuit where I knew - and my opponents expected - that I would struggle a little bit here, and Pecco was waiting for this weekend, and he was super fast - but I was able to increase even the advantage," he told MotoGP.com.
The blow delivered was two-fold - in terms of the championship picture and the performance picture.
A missed chance
The points gap is back up to 26 between the pair - the Qatar GP half-offsetting Marquez's Grand Prix of the Americas mistake.
And there was confidence from Bagnaia after the weekend that this swing back in Marquez's favour was entirely reflective of Bagnaia's needless Q2 error, even though at one point on Sunday he had caught up to and overtaken Marquez.
"I was pushing hard to close the gap, and it wasn't easy from P11. Maybe I forced a bit too much the rear, and also the fight with Franky [Morbidelli] made us lose a bit too much time.
"When you are behind and you need to overtake, you need to use more the rear tyre - just to exit [corners] closer to the guys in front of you, to at least have a chance to overtake.
"I arrived at, I think, 0.5s behind Maverick [Vinales], but with five-six laps to go I started to have a huge vibration and it was difficult to continue putting speed in some corners, I needed to slow down a bit.
"Starting from P11, it's always difficult to imagine more than this. For the future, I have to not start from that position."
In a conventional race, Bagnaia felt his pace was similar enough to Marquez's to have a real shot at the win - which is what everyone expected pre-weekend.
The window of opportunity
If Marquez had seen the COTA race out to its logical outcome and then the Qatar GP played out like it did, the gap between him and Bagnaia would've been at 56 points rather than 26 - so there's a substantial silver lining in the current state of play.
Except the underlying truth is also that, yes, Marquez should've been eight for eight here and borderline out of sight. And while it's clear Marquez should've won COTA, Bagnaia's Qatar GP win shot - even with a normal grid position - feels like it would've been at best at 50/50.
"In Thailand I was fast, OK, it's a circuit that I like. In Austin I was fast, [made a big mistake]. In Argentina, OK. But here, on a circuit that I've struggled to be like this, it means a lot," said Marquez.
"This weekend we did a step on the right[-hand] corners, this gives me breath - because now we arrive to circuits with a lot of right corners."
The right-hander comment, which refers specifically to the faster right-handers that Marquez historically doesn't like, is ominous.
Equally ominous is how Marquez was able to run the Sunday race totally to his liking.
Save for a slide at Turn 1 that led to that contact with his brother Alex - which could've of course been a lot more significant - Marquez orchestrated the race exactly how he'd envisioned it, starting with an Andrea Dovizioso-style strategy of backing up the pack and finishing with a late-race burst of pace while enjoying a strategy advantage.
Qualifying mistakes happen, but the evidence that Bagnaia would have stopped Marquez from executing had he joined his team-mate on the front row is hardly overwhelming.
Then consider that he was constrained in the sprint again - he's having to rely massively on grid position and defensive braking in those Saturday races, which leaves him vulnerable the way Marquez isn't.
And then consider that Marquez again looked more potent than Bagnaia in the lower-grip phases of the weekend.
Marquez's historic struggles at Lusail might be a touch overstated, including by the man himself, but if Bagnaia can't count on beating him here, there just aren't enough tracks on the calendar where he can feel confident coming into the weekend that he will have Marquez's number.
This, more than the Q2 mistake and the lost points, is what should actually worry Bagnaia - and those hoping for a 2025 title fight that goes the distance.
