#FrenchGP: one of the most difficult weekends for Pecco Bagnaia
A weekend full of surprises, crashes, comebacks, restarts, and bike changes. Francesco Bagnaia ends one of the toughest weekends of his career, while Ivàn Ortolà finishes with an encouraging ninth place.
The sixth round of the MotoGP championship will be remembered by our Suomy rider, Pecco Bagnaia, as one of the most difficult of his career. The sprint race, which since the beginning of the season hasn’t allowed him to fully showcase his potential, saw him make a mistake and crash on the second lap.
A real shame, as Pecco had a great start from sixth on the grid and immediately moved up to fourth.
In Sunday’s race, plagued by intermittent rain, numerous crashes, and dramatic twists, Pecco ended up in the gravel at the first corner due to contact caused by another rider. Still, Pecco showed great determination by remounting and completing the race in sixteenth place — despite also making a pit stop.
SPRINT RACE
The 2025 Sprint Races don’t seem to be the kind of races that allow our Pecco Bagnaia to perform at his best.
Luigi Dall’Igna, General Manager of Ducati Corse, commented:
“I feel sorry for Pecco. He had a good weekend. He was always fast, although in this morning’s qualifying on the soft tyre he struggled a bit more, and then there was this crash in the race. Luckily, it happened in the Sprint, so not too many points were lost. We definitely need to try to avoid these kinds of mistakes.”
Indeed, Pecco crashed on the second lap while in fourth place, after gaining two positions with an excellent start.
RACE
The 2025 French Grand Prix, held on Sunday, May 11th at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans, was one of the most chaotic and memorable events in recent MotoGP history — marked by rain, numerous crashes, penalties, and surprises.
A nightmare for Francesco Bagnaia. On the Bugatti circuit, the reigning champion endured one of the most difficult weekends of his MotoGP career.
On Sunday, the weather turned the race into a lottery
The result? An immediate loss of grip and an unsustainable race pace. After just a few laps, things got worse: Bagnaia crashed again, managed to get back on track, but his race was irreparably compromised. He finished in sixteenth place, lapped, and never really got into the fight for points.
MOTO2
Ivàn Ortolà finished the sixth round of the World Championship with good sensations. After securing a promising tenth place on the starting grid during qualifying, he managed to finish the race in ninth position, earning points in the standings.
“I wasn’t pushing a lot as it was early in the race. Unfortunately, the feeling with the front-end is still not at the level I’d like, so we need to keep working. I’m trying to ride in a different way, and it’s going quite well, but in this area I’m unfortunately a bit more at the limit. We have been very competitive so far here at Le Mans, except in qualifying – but it was my mistake – and the feeling in the race was good. We’re not giving up and we’ll try to improve each and every time; despite the challenges, our championship situation is good.”
Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – Sprint Race DNF
“My strategy from the beginning was to stay on track no matter what. Unfortunately, I had some significant spinning at the start and had to close the throttle. Just before turn one, I was passed by several riders, and then came the contact with Enea (Bastianini). These things can happen, especially when there are riders on slick tyres and others on wets in the same race — speeds are very different. I’m sad because had I re-joined straight away, without needing to return to the pits due to the bike damage, I could have finished in the top five. But unfortunately, everything went the wrong way today.”
Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – Race 16th
World Standings P. 3
Next Round:
British GP
Silverstone Circuit
May 23-25th
Click the button below to find out all the images of the #SuomyCrew during the weekend in France.