Ducati: It’s One Setback After Another for Pecco Bagnaia

After finishing in the points in both the Sprint and Sunday’s race in Austria, Pecco Bagnaia slipped back into the lower ranks at the end of the pre-qualifying session at Motegi. To advance to the decisive qualifying session for the Japanese Grand Prix, the rider from Piedmont will have to clear the hurdle of Q1, as he failed to finish in the top ten during Friday’s practice sessions. This is a disappointing result for Bagnaia, especially considering his perfect weekend in Japan last season, which included victories in both the Sprint and the Grand Prix.

A Ducati leads the standings at the end of Friday’s practice sessions, but not the one everyone was expecting: the fastest time, in fact, belongs to Alex Marquez of the Gresini Racing team, who clocked a best lap of 1:42.811—76 thousandths of a second ahead of Pedro Acosta’s KTM and exactly one-tenth of a second ahead of the factory Ducati ridden by Alex’s older brother, Marc Marquez.

Also advancing directly to Q2 are Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia, +0.218), Enea Bastianini (KTM Tech3, +0.349), Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati VR46, +0.386), Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha, +0.419), Jorge Martin (Aprilia, +0.464), Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda, +0.495), and Johann Zarco (LCR Honda, +0.574).

Meanwhile, the following riders will have to compete in Q1, which awards two spots for the decisive session: Fermin Aldeguer (Ducati Gresini, +0.578), Brad Binder (KTM, +0.618), Raul Fernandez (Aprilia Trackhouse, +0.674), Franco Morbidelli (+0.716), Ai Ogura (Aprilia Trackhouse, +0.768), Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati, +0.775), Luca Marini (Honda, +0.877), Jack Miller (Yamaha Pramac, +0.917), Somkiat Chantra (Honda, +1.085), Alex Rins (Yamaha, +1.493), Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha, +1.600), and Maverick Viñales (Tech3 KTM, +2.025).