Francesco Bagnaia outqualified Marc Marquez for the first time at the British Grand Prix on Saturday. It should be a confidence boost for the two-time world champion.
Fabio Quartararo made it three poles in a row on his Yamaha, with Friday pace-setter Alex Marquez second for Gresini. Bagnaia completes the front row – only the third time he’s started in the top three this season.
It was a frustrating end to the session for championship leader Marc Marquez. A couple of errors midway through his final lap denied him the chance to dethrone Quartararo.
Marquez will go from fourth place, his worst qualifying position of the year. His front-row streak stretched back to Malaysia last year.
Bagnaia is coming off a disastrous weekend at Le Mans where he failed to score a point. He crashed out of the Sprint and was the last classified finisher in the Grand Prix.
Francesco Bagnaia found pace with ‘unusual’ Ducati bike change at Silverstone
Speaking to Motosan after Friday’s running at the British Grand Prix, Bagnaia sounded more optimistic. He’s repeatedly cited a lack of ‘feeling’ on his Ducati motorcycle as the reason for his struggles.
Bagnaia preferred the GP24 and says he hasn’t felt an improvement from its successor. An unspecified but ‘unusual’ change may have finally set him on the right path.
His performance in the races will be the real indicator, of course. Bagnaia won at Silverstone in 2022 and has been on the podium in the last two years too.
“I’ve tried everything, but so far nothing has worked, except today when we made a slightly unusual change and it worked a little better,” the #63 rider explained.
“I think we took a small step forward today; tomorrow we’ll try to go even further in that direction, and maybe it will help us a little more.”
Pedro Acosta speaks up to defend Francesco Bagnaia amid struggles vs Marc Marquez
Bagnaia has rejected Ducati’s new front holeshot lever, unlike Marquez and VR46 rider Fabio di Giannantonio. He continues to experiment with his own solutions.
Speaking this week, Cal Crutchlow rejected any notion that Bagnaia had ‘got slower’ this season. Instead, he’s simply up against an all-time great.
At the very least, the 28-year-old needs to be in a position to capitalise when Marquez falters. He won the Americas GP after his teammate’s fall but could only manage third in Jerez.
Still, Pedro Acosta has no doubt about Bagnaia’s future. He said he’d ‘be willing to trade his results this year for mine’, which rather puts things into perspective.
