Pecco Bagnaia has put the Ducati Lenovo team on the spot demanding answers after a notably disappointing performance at the Austrian MotoGP and he is “running out of patience.”
Despite starting from a strong third on the grid and having a notable history of success with three successive wins at the Red Bull Ring, the two-time MotoGP World Champion was unable to convert his pace into a strong race finish, fading to eighth.
Bagnaia’s predicament contrasted sharply with the dominant form of his Ducati Lenovo teammate Marc Marquez who won the Austrian MotoGP to extend his dominant championship lead.
As the green lights went out, Pecco Bagnaia was in the fight for the podium and even managed to hold off the relentlessly fast Marquez in the opening exchanges.
But what followed was a slow, inexorable decline in race pace – a mysterious drop-off that saw Bagnaia not only fail to challenge for the win but also lose positions rapidly as the race wore on.
Each lap seemed to underscore a growing gap, as the Italian eventually finished over twelve seconds adrift of Marquez who continued his imperious dominance aboard a similar Ducati Lenovo machine.
This unexpected decline has left Bagnaia visibly frustrated and increasingly vocal about the technical and performance issues he is facing with the 2025-spec Desmosedici machinery.
“What has been happening all year has happened again,” Bagnaia said after the race. “I fight and give it my all. But this time giving it my all I finished eighth. The winner did it in the same time it took me to win last year. So I have the potential.
“I don’t know why things aren’t working out for me. Marco Bezzecchi and Marc Marquez did everything better than me. That I finished 12 seconds behind on a circuit where I always made a difference is something I don’t understand, and will never understand.
“I’m always focused, I’ve never lost my head. But today I couldn’t accelerate; everyone was overtaking me coming out of the corners. I hope Ducati explains it to me, because I’m running out of patience.”
Checkout Full 2025 Austrian MotoGP Race Results
2025 MotoGP Championship Standings after Austrian GP
Pecco Bagnaia had started off the weekend showing trademark speed across Friday practice and later qualified on the front row alongside Marco Bezzecchi.
However, the sprint event brought out a barrage of troubles for Bagnaia which began with an unusual wheelspin at race start, forcing him to sink towards the back of the field.
He struggled to pace his Ducati for eight laps and found himself in the last place before ultimately deciding to retire from the race altogether.
Bagnaia later explained that “something strange” happened to his tyres even before he reached the start-finish line.
“Difficult to explain well,” he said after Saturday’s sprint. “But I started super bad. Already on the warm-up lap I felt something strange on the rear tyre.
“And when I started, the rear was spinning a lot. Then after three laps I completely finished the rear tyre, and then I started to shake a lot on the straights and I had to stop because I arrived to the first corner without a front brake because of the shaking.”
Marquez claims Austrian MotoGP Sprint win, ends Red Bull Ring victory drought
Full 2025 Austrian MotoGP Sprint Race Results
Even as Bagnaia’s teammate Marquez racks up wins on the same machinery, the gap in performance has not gone unnoticed.
Ducati General Manager Gigi Dall’Igna, never one to mince words in the face of underachievement, described Bagnaia’s Austrian Grand Prix as “underwhelming” and called it a “wasted opportunity,” highlighting the dichotomy between the team’s two lead riders.
“Every race that passes is a wasted opportunity to improve,” Dall’Igna said. “He had a good weekend during all the practice sessions, yesterday he had a problem that we have to analyze, but his race was definitely underwhelming today.”
Following the Austrian MotoGP, Bagnaia finds himself lagging in third in the 2025 MotoGP championship standings, 43 points ahead of his closest rival Bezzecchi but a staggering 197 points adrift of his teammate Marquez after 13 rounds.
