Reigning world champion Pecco Bagnaia says struggles with Michelin’s MotoGP tyres are making the championship “not balanced” after his difficult Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The Ducati rider led Friday’s practice session and took pole position on Saturday, before a triumphant sprint victory in front of his home crowd.
He said he arrived on Sunday with the pace to win and “everything was set”, leading the first lap and running ahead for the next two tours.
Bagnaia was then passed by title rival Jorge Martin on lap four before being forced to slow down amid issues with his rear medium tyre, which he said “wasn’t working for 15 laps” despite having no issues with temperature or pressure.
He slipped from a 1m31.757s on lap two to a 1m32.034s on lap five, remaining in the late 1m31s for several laps while the leaders ran around 0.5s quicker.
It took the two-time champion until around lap 15 to regain his earlier pace, by which point he was almost three seconds adrift of leader Martin and second-place runner Enea Bastianini.
Speaking about his tyre woes after the race, Bagnaia said it was “a shame” because of his strong performance across the rest of the weekend, and believes it is a “huge problem” that tyre issues are affecting the title battle.
“From the start, I lost the rear in the warm up lap in the last corner, I lost the rear in the first corner and corner 13, I lost the front in Turn 14,” he said.
“I was pushing a lot and I was doing 1m31.8s, 1m31.7s, 1m31.8s, and then in a moment from a lap to another lap, I dropped my lap time by six, seven, eight-tenths without doing anything, just riding.
“So I don’t know. The feeling with the rear tyre was more or less the same as Barcelona last year when I struggled a lot in the warm up lap and I lost it in the second corner. Luckily, this track has more grip than Barcelona, but it was the same.
“The rear was not working, I was like a cone for other riders, and this is really strange. I never heard a rider complaining that the rear tyre started to work after 15 laps, I think it’s new for everybody.”
Bagnaia said fellow Ducati rider Marc Marquez had struggled with the medium rear during Friday’s practice, while Bastianini also had issues on the first day of the weekend.
Asked what it meant for the championship if tyre issues could affect the title fight, he continued: “It’s a shame, but I know 100% that Michelin don’t know what happened with the tyres.
“This is a problem, but they don’t know. They want to give to us the same chance every time, but for some reason, sometimes it’s not working the same.
“For me it’s a shame, because I did all the weekend in a perfect way. I was comfortable with my physical condition, I was able to push like I wanted, everything was set.
“Then I arrived in the race with the pace to win the race, starting from pole position, leading the first lap, and then I had to slow down because the tyres are not ready, the tyres are not there.
“This is a huge problem that is making the championship not balanced in this moment. I get in the last three grands prix three situations that are out of our control. It’s true that in the two Misanos I just lost five points, but it’s also true that it could have been much better for us.
“The possibility of going away from here leading the championship was very high, but we didn’t have the chance.”
Bagnaia’s grand prix eventually ended in a crash at Turn 8 with six laps remaining, locking the front and ending up in the gravel.
It marked his seventh DNF of the season - his third in a full-length grand prix, with the remaining non-scores coming in sprint races.
“I don’t know what was normal today, everything was quite strange from this morning,” he said. “But nothing, I was straight, because I was having 32 degrees, and normally in track conditions you can crash directly like this.
“I didn’t brake hard, I braked 18 metres before [I did on] the fastest lap I did, and I still lost the front like I touched a bump but there is not. Strange, but everything is strange from the start.”
Despite having recovered time to those ahead before his crash, Bagnaia said he would still have been unable to win even if his race had not ended prematurely.
“Win the race? No,” he said. “Look what happened then [between Martin and Bastianini], yes. But I was gaining.
“It’s true that after that lap, they started to drop a lot the lap time, so maybe yes. I already recovered one second, 1.5s, so maybe I was able to win the race, but to close the gap and to overtake are two different stories.
“But in any case, already finishing the race could have been a good thing.”
Bagnaia is now 24 points behind Martin with six rounds remaining. The championship heads straight into the next round, with the paddock dashing to Indonesia for the next round in just five days' time.
