Francesco Bagnaia has pointed the blame on a faulty Michelin rear tyre for his sudden drop in pace in MotoGP’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The factory Ducati rider had started the second Misano race from pole position and was battling with Pramac rival Jorge Martin for the lead in the early laps.
But after losing places to both Martin and team-mate Enea Bastianini on successive tours, he rapidly lost touch with the leading duo, with his deficit growing to as much as three seconds at the mid-way point of the race. At one stage, there was even a serious risk of him losing the final spot on the podium to the chasing Gresini bike of Marc Marquez.
But from the 15th tour onwards, Bagnaia’s fortunes suddenly changed as he set a series of fastest laps, with his 1m30.877s flier remaining unbeaten until the chequered flag.
However, by that time he was back on pace, he had already fallen too far off to mount a fightback, and his race eventually came to a premature end with a crash at Turn 8 on lap 21.
Speaking afterwards, the Italian said he was baffled as to why his rear tyre wasn’t performing the way it was intended to for a major chunk of the grand prix, explaining that no rider in MotoGP has ever encountered such a problem.
“I was pushing a lot and I was doing 1m31.8, 31.7, 31.8 [laps on a consistent basis],” he said about the early stages of the race. ”And then in a moment from one lap to another lap, I dropped the lap time by six-seven-eight tenths without doing anything, just riding.
“The rear was not working. I was like a cone for other riders.
“This medium rear was the one from the start of the weekend so it has to be the best one, but it wasn't working for 15 laps. So it's really strange.
“Then it was super good. I started to be super-fast, like I was expecting my pace was.
“After the start, I was leading, I was quite sure to open a gap and then going away because my pace was super good [until the tyre issues].”
While Michelin has delivered new tyres this year that have helped riders break long-standing lap records at nearly every circuit, the French manufacturer hasn’t been able to eradicate random problems that keep popping up time and again.
At last year’s penultimate round of the season in Qatar, Martin accused Michelin of robbing him of the title with a bad tyre that felt like a “stone” after finishing the Losail race down in 10th.
Asked about the potential impact of an external supplier in deciding the outcome of the championship, Bagnaia said: “It's a shame. But I know 100% that Michelin doesn'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.
“So this is a huge problem that is making the championship not balanced at this moment.
Referring to a late incident with Alex Marquez at Aragon, he added: “In the last three grands prix, two situations [were] out of our control.
“It's true that in the two Misano races, I just lost three-five points but it could have been much better for us. The possibility of going from here leading the championship was very high, but we didn't have the chance.”
Late in the race, Bagnaia lost the bike early going into the Turn 8 left-hander that followed the back straight, giving away a likely third-place finish.
The retirement, his third of the year, has left him facing a 24-point deficit to championship leader Martin ahead of this weekend’s Indonesian Grand Prix at Mandalika.
Explaining what happened, he said: “I don't know what was normal today. Everything was strange this morning.
“I was [going] straight. It was 32C and normally in dry conditions you can't crash with 32C.
“I didn't brake hard, I braked 80 metres before the fastest lap I did. And I still lost the front like I touched a bump that is not there. Strange but everything was strange from the start.”
