Francesco Bagnaia conceded that his second successive full-length MotoGP race crash in the Americas Grand Prix is “worrying” having thrown away 45 points in short order.
The factory Ducati rider looked good to back up his pole position and sprint race success on Saturday at the Circuit of the Americas as he led the early stages of Sunday’s GP encounter, though disaster unfolded as he tucked the front of his Desmosedici at Turn 2 – handing an unlikely victory to LCR Honda’s Alex Rins.
The reigning MotoGP world champion’s crash was similar to the one he suffered while running second in the Argentina GP two weeks ago, his pair of spills having now cost him a total of 45 points in his quest to retain his riders title – though thanks to his Portuguese GP win as well as two sprint successes he remains second in the standings just 11 adrift of series leader Marco Bezzecchi.
Bagnaia affirmed his two straight GP retirements were “worrying” for the future though, the Italian remaining adamant that his crash wasn’t due to him making an error and that he was “controlling all the time.”
“I don’t know what happened like last week in Argentina, we worked so well during the weekend and I didn’t have any losing the front or any moments all weekend, I was pushing and controlling all of the time,” explained a concerned Bagnaia.
“Today during the race I was going normally, I was for sure going fast but I was controlling and not doing any stupid, but I crashed in the same way (as Argentina.)
“We have to understand it and I hope my team can help me on that, but I will prepare for Jerez in the same ways as always and will go there trying to be the best and strongest I can be and hopefully the team help me in the meantime.
“I’ve seen the data already, but nothing changed (in lead up to crash.)
“It’s worrying because if you don’t know why you’re crashing it doesn’t help, for sure our bike is the best, I’m 100% sure about this but if you crash and don’t know why, 45 points lost in two weeks is useless so we have to understand it.”
