Francesco Bagnaia says Friday’s bad weather at the Brazilian MotoGP had knock-on effects that hampered him on Saturday.

A lack of dry running on Friday meant no time for riders to try different setups. For Bagnaia, that meant he entered Saturday with different setups on his two Desmosedicis.

The Italian preferred one bike of another, and so started with that bike in Q2. But he crashed on his first flying lap, which left him with only his number two bike to finish qualifying with, and he ended up 11th.

“Honestly, quite intense,” Francesco Bagnaia told MotoGP.com in summary of his Saturday in Brazil. 

“This morning we worked very well. We just had a little of bad luck having two different bikes in the garage because yesterday we didn’t have time to ride and test setups and this morning I had two. 

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“So I chose one of the two and it was better for me, but then crashing I was without it, so the other bike was with less grip and in this track you need grip. So, I struggled quite a bit in qualifying. 

“Then I also had a lap cancelled for a yellow flag that, honestly, I didn’t see, but something that can happen.”

Bagnaia’s mistake was then further compounded by a track layout that, he felt, made overtaking difficult. 

“In this track it’s quite difficult to overtake and I got stuck behind Alex Marquez that was closing a lot the lines and I never had the chance to overtake him – but for my mistake,” the Ducati Lenovo Team rider explained.

“It’s a shame because the bike is super-competitive here, I was feeling super-competitive, I just leave the gap two times to try something different, and both situations in three corners I was back in the back of Alex. 

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“So, the potential is there and it’s a shame that I didn’t put all together to finish on the podium that was possible today.”

Bagnaia finished the Sprint eighth, which marked his best MotoGP result of the season after taking ninth place in both Thailand races.

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