Francesco Bagnaia laments “weekend to actually neglect” after French GP

Francesco Bagnaia dubbed the French Grand Prix as “a race and a weekend to actually neglect” after he crashed on the opening lap earlier than coming residence in sixteenth.

Ranging from sixth on the grid, the two-time MotoGP champion collided with Enea Bastianini on the first chicane of lap one, in flip taking out Joan Mir.

Bagnaia was capable of get going once more and got here in for a change of motorcycle, however it was a point-less weekend for the manufacturing unit Ducati rider, who additionally retired from Saturday’s dash race the day earlier.

“A race and a weekend to actually neglect,” mentioned Bagnaia. “It is the primary time I’ve scored two zeros on Saturday and Sunday, in each races. We weren’t capable of take something residence.

“I used to be going sturdy, however I nonetheless have no feeling on the entrance, and within the moist, the state of affairs will get worse. Within the moist, the bike usually offers you suggestions, and this bike does not give me any. It was a disgrace as a result of my technique was excellent; the one one who adopted it was [Johann] Zarco.”

Like Bagnaia, Zarco opted to remain out on the moist tyres. This technique in the end proved to be the optimum one, because the LCR Honda rider went on to take the victory at his residence race.

“Even with the crash, if I had come again, I may have completed within the high 5,” Bagnaia added. “However I needed to cease as a result of the shift paddle was partially blocked, typically the gears would interact and typically they would not.

“I then returned to the observe with the opposite bike, however nothing labored in the present day, and when issues go mistaken, it is arduous for them to proper themselves.”

After a 2024 marketing campaign which noticed him end runner-up to Jorge Martin, 2025 has confirmed tougher as Bagnaia is 51 factors behind championship chief and new team-mate Marc Marquez after six rounds. 

“It isn’t a snug state of affairs for me,” the Italian mentioned. “By no means serene, and, above all, troublesome for me to simply accept, as a result of I’ve all the time been used to different issues, and now I am in a state of affairs the place I’ve no feeling with the bike.

“After I trip a motorcycle, I give 100% in all conditions. The issue is that with this bike, whether or not I do a quick lap, or I fall, or I do a lap 5 seconds slower, I all the time have the identical sensations, and that is the issue.

“We have been like this because the starting of this 12 months. I do not really feel the restrict, I do not know the place it’s. Till final 12 months, I felt the rubber, the actions.

“This 12 months, I do not really feel something till I fall. The entire workforce is engaged on an answer. And it is even troublesome for them. We’re all in the identical boat proper now.”

Regardless of an unwelcome end result at Le Mans, Bagnaia didn’t shift the blame onto dangerous luck.

“I do not recognise fortune and misfortune; they do not exist,” he mentioned. “Fortune belongs to those that win and people who fail. I’ve by no means thought-about myself unfortunate. It isn’t a straightforward time, that is all.”