French GP, Pecco Bagnaia furious after the crash: "No human error"

Disappointing retirement in the MotoGP race at Le Mans: the Piedmontese rider commented on the slide, explaining that he hadn’t made any particular mistake.

The Ducati Lenovo team finished the 2026 French Grand Prix Sunday with 0 points. While Marc Marquez couldn’t race because he ended up in the operating room for dual right-shoulder/right-foot surgery, Francesco Bagnaia retired following a crash at Turn 3 on lap sixteen. He was in second place and suddenly slipped, squandering the chance to secure a good result. After his second place in the Sprint, he was keen to do well in the long race as well.

Right after the crash he didn’t hide his frustration, which he also vented upon returning to the Ducati garage. He thought he could fight for the podium and instead ended the day with a disappointing retirement. Next weekend MotoGP heads to Barcelona, where there will be an opportunity to confirm the positives seen at Le Mans and improve further.

Even though the race result wasn’t what he imagined, Pecco also highlighted the positives of the French Grand Prix on Sky Sport MotoGP: "At last, this was a weekend where we were able to be fast from the start. We worked well and improved a lot. Today in the race we were there: despite the big struggles we’re having with starts, I had made my way back up. Then unfortunately we had a small issue, lap after lap I was losing confidence with the front as I tried to maintain the same pace. It can happen, we’ll try to work on it. We know why I crashed, there was no human error. It’s the same problem as Jerez."

The same technical issue at the front that led to his retirement in Jerez cropped up again at Le Mans, although Bagnaia didn’t want to specify exactly what it was (brakes?): "The loss of confidence came in the last seven laps, more or less. Unfortunately it was getting worse and I couldn’t enter the corner the way I wanted. In any case, we know why I slid and that helps us a lot. I’d put more focus on the fact that we managed to be fast, even though it burns inside a lot. Today we were there, I was behind Bez and I was managing everything fairly well."

The Ducati Lenovo team will have to work hard to prevent the problem from recurring. Bagnaia appears optimistic ahead of next weekend’s Catalan Grand Prix: "I have full confidence in the work we’re doing. I’m sure we’ll arrive in Barcelona having made a nice step forward compared to the test, and I hope we can make another to get on par with or better than Aprilia."

In Barcelona he will be the only rider in red, since Marquez will be absent and it has already been announced there will be no replacement. He will have to do his best to take the fight to the Aprilia riders and maybe return to the top step of the podium.