Bagnaia frustrated as Ducati got "worse" in Australian sprint

Bid for a third straight title takes a knock as Phillip Island wind throws Ducati set-up off course on Saturday

2024 Australian GP - Saturday

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Francesco Bagnaia was left frustrated by set-up changes that made existing problems with his factory Ducati GP24 "worse" in the sprint at Phillip Island on Saturday.

Although Bagnaia ran second early in the race, he dropped to an underwhelming fourth place by the finish, losing points to winner Jorge Martin in the battle for the world championship.

The reigning champion’s deficit to the Pramac Ducati man is now 16 points instead of 10.

Bagnaia had been satisfied with his bike after Friday’s limited practice running, which took place in warmer temperatures and without much wind. But, in keeping with the forecast, conditions turned on their head on Saturday, with cold temperatures and serious wind greeting the riders for qualifying and the sprint.

Bagnaia said the wind was the main factor on Saturday, when he could only qualify fifth.

“The modifications we made to the bike yesterday, which worked well, weren’t working well in the wind today,” said Bagnaia, who has yet to win in any class at Phillip Island.

“I tried to manage the situation and tried to improve what I was feeling this morning.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

"A sail effect exiting the fast corners was the biggest problem. I felt like the wind was pushing me out a lot and I kept losing the front in the fast corners.

“Already in qualifying I tried to [make changes] to have more stability but it wasn’t working at all. So we tried something for the race…but what had been good got worse and what had been bad stayed the same. So we didn’t take a step forward and it was worse than this morning.”

Bagnaia briefly looked threatening after moving past Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati) into second position on lap four. At that point, Martin's early lead was less than a second.

“I tried to close the gap to Jorge but in those two or three laps I took many risks, so I had to slow down and try to do the maximum," he added.

Bagnaia could only hold onto second until lap eight, when both Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and Bagnaia’s team-mate Enea Bastianini moved past.

“When I saw on the screen that Marquez was there, I knew he was going to pass me at Turn 4 [because] I didn’t have the same feeling in Turn 3. And I also knew that Bastianini was going to pass me at Turn 10," said the Italian.

“Honestly, I’m not happy. But more than this today was impossible.

“Luckily, looking at the data, we have already identified what to do for tomorrow. We’ll try it tomorrow morning but I think it’s good.

“We have to improve things because we were fighting for the title. We knew Martin would be much faster here, but we have to try to close that gap.”