Pecco Bagnaia took his first big step in the MotoGP season – and it coincides with a trip to a lucrative track.
MotoGP will return next weekend in Muguero, Italy. This is the Grand Prix that we have won in the past three years.
Bagnaia won the podium with Aragon a week ago, but perhaps more importantly, he escaped the sense of his Ducati Gp25’s front-end all year round.
After finishing 12th in the sprint race, it was a fulfilling improvement overnight.
“It was a rapid change on Sunday,” Lewis Duncan told the Crush MotoGP podcast.
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“We had a fight with Pedro Acosta and proved that the front-end feeling was coming back, and he wouldn’t have been able to do that in the recent round until they took a step forward.
“We can see this as the beginning of Pecco’s transformation. He’s 93 points behind Mark, so it’s probably a bit late. He overturned the 91 points deficit in 2022, but we’re dealing with a different situation.
“Hopefully, we’ll now have a real pecco that we want.”
Pecco Bagnaia praised “mentality shift”
Pecco Bagnaia
Jordan Moreland added: “It was a really good ride. I’m confident. He was 12th in the sprint. It was the worst ever.” Jack Miller said he noticed Pecco’s riding style was completely off.
“I don’t want to go beyond myself by saying he’s back firmly, and that’s the starting point.
“At least Pecco Bagnaia is not currently the fourth or fifth Ducati.
“The mentality change was very good. It shows a lot of bounce off the bad sprint.”
Lewis Duncan said:
“He wasn’t winning the Grand Prix because he was 0.12 seconds slower than Mark Marquez, but that’s better than before.
“These are positives that enter the next two races, the fortress of Pecco. Mugello and Assen, he cleaned up.
“He doesn’t think this will happen this year for his trust.
“But the worries he’s going into these next two races were what he saw on the powerful circuit at Pecco, where he was nowhere.
“In theory, we need to take a step forward. With balance and everything we’ve seen, this is Pecco’s first true step this season.”
Bagnaia is 93 points behind championship leader and factory Ducati teammate Marc Marquez.
The 2025 MotoGP title may be out of his reach.
However, Bagnaia has realistic hopes to enter the next few rounds with Muguero and Assen, rediscovering his past form to put a dent in Marquez’s title bid.
