Francesco Bagnaia has given all hopes of finishing the 2025 on a positive note even despite losing the MotoGP title to Marc Márquez. Two weeks ago, he still hoped to finish the season as runner-up, chasing Álex Márquez, but reality hit hard and is now fourth in the General Classification behind fellow Italian Marco Bezzecchi from Aprilia.
Bagnaia won the Japanese MotoGP race on September 28, a victory watered down because Marc Márquez, second, became mathematically champion. Then, two DNF (did not finish) in a row, in Indonesia and last weekend in Australia, where he crashed in the latter stages of the race.
In the sprint race on Saturday, Bagnaia finished penultimate, only ahead of his teammate Michele Pirro, who replaced Marc Márquez after his fall in Indonesia. Then, on Sunday, after battling from sixteenth to twelfth and pushing for the top ten, crash with four laps to go, and decided to quit.
"After yesterday's Sprint, I promised myself I wouldn't finish the race at the back of the field, as it wouldn't have been an acceptable result", resented Bagnaia. "I pushed hard and made my way back to the group fighting for the top positions, with a chance to finish in the top seven, but unfortunately I crashed. When you're at the limit, these things can happen."
"I crashed because I didn't want to finish last again. I'd rather crash a thousand times fighting for points than when I'm last. Fighting to finish tenth will never make me happy", lamented the Italian, twice World Champion in 2022 and 2023, and once again blamed his bike: "My Ducati is the one from Japan; what I rode today is far from what a Ducati is".
MotoGP continues next weekend, starting October 24, at the Malaysian Grand Prix.