--- title: "Bagnaia Misano MotoGP Crisis Deepens As Ducati Answer Back" canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2026/09/12/bagnaia-misano-motogp-crisis-ducati-tardozzi/" type: "post" language: "en-GB" author: "James Wilson" section: "Motorsport News" published: "2026-09-12T07:18:24Z" modified: "2026-09-12T07:18:24Z" --- # Bagnaia Misano MotoGP Crisis Deepens As Ducati Answer Back Francesco Bagnaia arrived at the circuit where he once looked untouchable and left Friday 19th on the timesheets. The **Bagnaia Misano MotoGP** weekend has become the clearest illustration yet of a confidence crisis that neither the rider nor Ducati has been able to explain, and it now has the factory’s management answering questions in public. ## Bagnaia Misano MotoGP practice: 18th, 19th and “close to crashing seven times” Bagnaia was 18th in FP1 and 19th in the hour-long afternoon Practice session at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, consigning him to Q1 for the fourth successive round. This is a track that gave him his first premier-class podium in 2020 and two grand prix victories, in 2021 and 2022. “The team is working hard to figure out the problem but it seems impossible to understand why,” the double world champion said after Practice. “It’s extremely clear on the data the difference between me and all the other Ducatis, because I’m braking much harder than the rest but the bike is not accelerating. I’m paying a lot of attention to acceleration with the throttle but I’m the one that is accelerating less.” The consequence is a riding style stripped of everything that made him a champion. “I’m riding the bike in a very defensive way because as soon as I try to do a little bit more I crash,” he said. “For me today I was close to crash seven times in the Practice and that was very slow. Even in the slow laps I was almost crashing, so this is strange and we need to understand why.” ## Ducati respond to the “old things” comment Speaking on Thursday, Bagnaia had said he needed “old things” to recover his feeling, adding that Ducati would be leading the way now if it had four GP24s on the grid — a pointed assessment of the GP26 he is being asked to race. Asked about it on Friday, Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi told the MotoGP world feed there was no breakdown in the relationship. “I think that Pecco has his ideas,” Tardozzi said. “Pecco still wants some confidence that this old bike was giving to him, and unfortunately he hasn’t found \[it\] on that new bike. But anyway, we are trying hard to bring him back that feeling, which is mainly on the front and on the corner speed. It seems that we haven’t done that yet.” Tardozzi insisted the factory would keep working “until the last lap of the last race”. It is a familiar position for Ducati, but a difficult one to sell when the same machinery in the other side of the garage is winning races. ## The contrast in the other half of the box Marc Marquez has won four grands prix this season despite riding well below his physical best with an ongoing shoulder problem, and sits within 19 points of the championship lead. Bagnaia’s run of four consecutive podiums before the summer break ended abruptly with crashes out of both the British and Aragon Grands Prix, and his front-end confidence and rear grip complaints have worsened since. Misano was always likely to sharpen the contrast. Marco Bezzecchi topped Friday Practice on the Aprilia with a 1m30.144s, 0.103s clear of Marquez, having trailed the Ducati rider by 0.060s in FP1 — a margin fine enough to suggest the two Italian manufacturers are as evenly matched here as they have been all year. Our full [Misano Friday practice report](https://readmotorsport.com/2026/09/11/misano-motogp-practice-bezzecchi-marc-marquez/) has the detail, while the wider picture of the three-way fight is covered in our look at how [Jorge Martin is playing down his title lead](https://readmotorsport.com/2026/09/09/misano-motogp-title-martin-marquez-bezzecchi/) with just 24 points covering the top three. Bagnaia, meanwhile, faces a Q1 exit route out of the bottom half of the grid before Saturday’s sprint. On current form, simply reaching Q2 at a circuit he used to own would count as progress. Quotes via [Crash.net](https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1104268/1/pecco-bagnaia-riding-very-defensive-motogp-crisis-continues-misano).