What really ruined MotoGP leader Bagnaia’s sprint at Silverstone

Reigning MotoGP world champion Pecco Bagnaia has accepted responsibility for his crash in Saturday’s sprint race at the British Grand Prix, raising his hands after the crash which reduced his championship lead over Jorge Martin to just one point.

After a poor start from his good front row starting position and failing to capitalise properly on title rival Martin’s slightly harder launch on the second row, Bagnaia found himself fourth behind not only Martin but also team-mate Enea Bastianini and the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro after a chaotic opening few corners.

Appearing to settle for a long game strategy after contact between the KTMs of Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta behind him, the Italian was given some breathing space, but it was an unfortunately characteristic front wheel kink that left him in the gravel – thanks, he admitted afterwards, to nothing other than his own mistake.

“I made a mistake, honestly,” he said. “All weekend, in Turn 4 I’m really fast, I go in really fast, and on that lap I overdid the line a little bit, I was closer to the front apex, I anticipated the entry and I lost the front.

“Then I struggled a bit with rear grip in the first lap and a half, more or less.

“Then everything went perfectly again, I closed the gap, I was super fast, but right from turn 4 I had an accident. It’s my fault, I’ve already said sorry to my whole team, because they are doing a perfect job as always, honestly I just made a mistake.”

THE BAGNAIA GATES 🤯@PeccoBagnaia crashed just as it started to get closer! 💥#British Grand Prix 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/VXDWhyPmms

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 3, 2024

However, there is one factor that may well remove at least some of the blame from Bagnaia: the fact that he became the latest victim of a stuck ride height adjuster that meant his race was at least somewhat compromised before he even got to the first corner.

“Honestly, I had a really good start,” he explained, “but the rear ride height adjuster didn’t (disengage), so I went into turns one and two with the bike in a lower position, and I lost positions, so I was fourth.”

And while that doesn’t necessarily explain the crash two laps later, it mostly means that Bagnaia wasn’t able to run the kind of race he thrives in, the kind where the metronomic double world champion is able to take the lead early on, then control the pace and make himself very difficult to overtake.

Despite the damage to his championship lead, he goes into Sunday’s second outing at Silverstone still confident he can come away from the British round as championship leader – and says his crash and Martin’s exit from the lead at Sachsenring in the final round are indicative of the current standard of MotoGP.

“First of all, the new rear tyres are fantastic, but they make us fall more because the rear pushes the front a lot. Today, the top three finished the race eight seconds ahead of fourth place. So, at that point, the speed of some riders is incredible. I think we have never seen something like that, it is super impressive, I love it, but the risk of a crash is always there.”