Bagnaia lively in the Le Mans Practice
Flashes of the “old” Pecco. This sums up Francesco Bagnaia‘s Friday at Le Mans, who finished third in the Practice in France and deservedly qualified for Q2 at the “Bugatti” after a nice time attack and a day in which he finally regained that feeling he hadn’t had since 2024. Thanks to Ducati’s updates (a new fairing that however wouldn’t be used in case of rain), which allowed him to push more on the GP26 both in the morning and in the afternoon.
The afternoon was marred by a crash at the end, which not only damaged the new parts on the GP-26 but also ruined Marc Marquez‘s decisive lap, relegating the world champion to Q1. However, even that fall takes on a positive connotation for Bagnaia.
Bagnaia’s words
“I have to say that when you crash because you push, it’s definitely something you understand better. I’m happy to have had the chance to push like this today. It was a good day, we worked well from the start. This morning it seemed like a disaster in terms of results, but it was a very positive session. This afternoon we immediately managed to find the right direction. We kept progressing, running at a great pace and the time attack went well, without ever overdoing it,” he commented to Sky Sport MotoGP. “In the second time attack I wanted to get into the 1:29s. I had a good T1, but in turn 6 I pushed a bit more on the entry and lost it. We are still working a bit on making it turn in that phase, but otherwise I’m quite happy.”
“I think after the Jerez test we made a small step forward. And today here I felt it. However, it’s too early to say anything, we’ll see tomorrow. It will be important to adapt also to more critical situations.
Who has a bit more now? For me, in terms of pace, me, Di Giannantonio and Bezzecchi are the ones a bit faster.”
