The Italian, runner-up in the world last year, is on paper one of the candidates to fight for the title this season, but neither his feelings on the bike, nor the results, lead us to think that he could end up being one unless Change the dynamic you’re in.
In Qatar , at the premiere of this World Cup, Bagania went to the ground taking Jorge Martín with him, when both were fighting not to drop out of the top five. In Indonesia , two weeks ago, Bagnaia was penalized for a tremendous scare when he stepped on the white line that delimits the track, and crossed the finish line 15th. A background that temporarily leaves him with only one point in the table, and far (29 points) from Enea Bastianini, the leader of the provisional classification.
The man from Turin does not finish making himself the Ducati of this 2022, a circumstance that already led him before starting to recover a version of the engine used in 2021. Then it was the front height device that he preferred to stop using, and not even with those did he finish be to your liking.
In Argentina, Pecco Bagnaia could not get into the second round of qualifying (Q2), neither directly nor after passing through Q1, in which he finished fourth.
Things are not going well for Ducati’s theoretical stiletto, and that generates situations in which frustration becomes visible. This time it was during the last minutes of the second free practice, at a time when Pecco significantly reduced speed as he passed through one of the track’s straights, in a dangerous action that made the Race Direction call him a chapter. “I went to the stewards and apologized, they understood and told me to try to be smarter and not to do it. I was nervous, it was my fault,” Bagnaia said.
The suspension of three positions to his teammate, Jack Miller, for a similar reason –he hindered Fabio Quartararo at one point in Q2–, will allow him to gain a place and start 13th in a race in which he will have a lot of work ahead of him. Either way, the #63 is confident his pace will be more competitive than his one-lap punch, in which he was unable to take advantage of the new tyres.
“With used tires I was confident, and my feelings were good. But with the new tires I had a hard time; I could only improve three tenths. I’m going slow,” summed up the Ducati rider, who especially choked on turn 11, due to the multiple and large potholes that the asphalt presents.
“It’s something similar to what we suffered in Austin last year. There, before qualifying, we tried something and it went well, and I think it will also do well for me here to be more consistent,” settled Bagnaia.
