That Friday optimism melted away fast in Malaysia, as Motorsport.com Italia reports. Francesco Bagnaia arrived at Sepang hoping a historically friendly venue would finally help him rediscover his feeling with the Ducati, but instead, he ended the opening day down in 12th position.
Now, he faces the dreaded Q1 trap on Saturday morning. A late crash at turn 1 certainly didn't help matters, robbing him of a final chance to crack the top ten, but the raw pace was missing all day anyway. Bagnaia finished over eight tenths off the best time set by his teammate Marc Marquez, leaving him scratching his head.
My bike only works well in a straight line, so I gave my best in the first and last sector. I think I am among the top three in both sectors. In the other two I lose eight tenths, it's ridiculous.
"Non lo so, io sto dando il massimo," Bagnaia explained to reporters at Sepang, including those from Motorsport.com. "Surely this is a track that theoretically suits me a bit more, but I struggled much more than I expected. Maybe I was optimistic about my problems. But it's hard, really tough, I don't have much performance. Even last year though I was out of Q2 on Friday, so maybe tomorrow will go better."
Pre-season testing had offered a glimmer of hope that things might click, but this machine has felt entirely wrong ever since the summer break. The sensation in the saddle bears no resemblance to what he felt during testing, a disconnect that has haunted him all season long.
"The feeling that I have in the saddle of the bike is completely different compared to the test, so this is the fundamental thing to understand, but more or less it has been like this all season," Bagnaia said. "My bike only works well in a straight line, so I gave my best in the first and last sector. I think I am among the top three in both sectors. In the other two I lose eight tenths, it's ridiculous."
While other riders pointed fingers at the track surface and argued it degraded following Formula 1's return, the three-time world champion refused to use that as an excuse. He insisted the tarmac feels no different than it did during testing, noting that delays in shipping materials due to war prevented a planned repaving, a reality the team knew about well in advance.
