Bagnaia “wasn’t smart enough” to avoid Malaysia MotoGP Q2 crash

The Ducati rider was forced to go through Q1 on Saturday at Sepang after a late crash in FP3 trailing nearest championship rival Fabio Quartararo left him outside of the top 10.

Easing through the first part of qualifying, Bagnaia was on course for a front row lap in the latter stages of Q2 when he crashed again going into Turn 4.

This dropped him to ninth on the grid, one place ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and three spots clear of Quartararo ahead of Sunday’s 20-lap race in which Bagnaia can wrap up the title if he outscores Quartararo by 11 points and Espargaro by two.

Bagnaia admits getting held up by Franco Morbidelli in FP3 prior to his crash led him to start “to feel pressure”, which led to his error in qualifying. 

“I just did everything to try to ruin the day, because this morning I was too upset, too nervous, for what happened with Franco and Fabio; I was a bit angry,” Bagnaia said.

“Then after I just said ‘it’s something that can happen to everybody’, so I’m human and I started to feel pressure.

“But I think it’s normal. Qualifying I wasn’t smart enough to understand my pace was good enough to be on the front row without forcing too much.

“In the corner four I lost the front, I was motivated by being one tenth and a half down in sector one.

“So, I said ‘ok, I force’, and then I lost the front. So, it was the biggest mistake.”

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Quartararo was left with a fractured finger on his left hand after a crash in FP4 ahead of his difficult qualifying session, with Bagnaia expressing sorrow for the Frenchman’s plight as “the bad luck he is having at this moment, he doesn’t deserve it”.

With the permutations painting a favourable picture for Bagnaia’s hopes of winning the title on Sunday, the Ducati rider insists it would be wrong of him to try to force the issue.

“I will try to do the best possible,” Bagnaia said if he felt pressure to secure the championship this weekend.

“If I will be able to close things tomorrow I’m happy.

“But it’s not correct, it’s not good for me to be forced on that, to think that I have to close it because if I gain some more points tomorrow it’s good.

“For sure we will arrive in Valencia with some more pressure, but with some more gap. It will be important to be smart tomorrow for sure.”