Bagnaia and the destroyed tire at Motegi: the vicious cycle triggered by a lack of grip

Pecco Bagnaia’s rear tire, which came back to the pits with the center of the tread destroyed, became the defining image of the Motegi Sprint. The Ducati rider has now explained what happened: not an isolated defect, but a vicious cycle triggered by the chronic lack of grip that has followed him all season. As we reported in Tire disaster in the Motegi Sprint: Bagnaia’s rear tire is torn to shreds, Pecco pulled in with one lap to go.

A year ago at Motegi, Bagnaia won both the Sprint and the Grand Prix—the only double of his season. This time the weekend started uphill: knocked out in Q1, he started from 13th on the grid. On his final qualifying attempt he ran wide at the last chicane, missing the chance to get into Q2.

In the 12-lap Sprint, the goal was to reach the points. "The start was normal. I tried to move up and I gained two positions after the three riders in front crashed. There could have been a chance to finish ninth and grab a point: I had Marini and Quartararo ahead and I think it was a realistic target."

The turning point came midway through the race. Speaking to Sky Sport, Bagnaia explained how the attempt to correct the issue ended up making it worse, lap after lap. "Around lap six I started to have a lot of vibrations on corner entry, and that then caused it to heat up more and more, because to try to stop it from vibrating I tried to use the rear brake more, and this had more and more consequences on the way it turned."

At the root is the new asphalt, which made it hard to predict rear tire behavior. "It’s a tough situation—unfortunately there’s new asphalt and we didn’t know what to expect from the rear tire. We tried to choose what could be the best compromise, but unfortunately with the lack of grip you tend to heat the tire more, and these things can happen."

Bagnaia wasn’t the only one to suffer: Jorge Martin also finished with the rear in terrible shape, while the winner Marc Marquez had no issues. According to Sky Sport, Bezzecchi finished with the tire intact, but he and Miller were the only ones on a medium rear. Pecco, however, distinguishes his case from the Aprilia rider’s: "I don’t know Martin’s reasons, but it could be that they kept a fairly fast pace. In my case it’s more due to the fact that I’m really lacking grip and when I accelerate the tire tends to slide a lot, it tends to heat up more and therefore cause this overheating, which then creates problems for the tire."

What triggers a problem like this? "Unfortunately these are things that hardly happen when you start, stop, and ride alone. But when you ride in a group, the bike and the tires tend to heat up more, and it can happen."

In the Grand Prix, Bagnaia, a future Aprilia rider, will again start 13th. The tire scenario has changed: as reported in MotoGP, tire alarm at Motegi: Michelin’s countermeasure for Warm Up and the Race, Michelin has withdrawn the soft for the race. For Pecco the key remains the same: "If we can solve the grip issues, we can solve the rear tire problem."

-> Follow us on Instagram as well: @Corsedimoto