The defending MotoGP champion, Francesco Bagnaia, admits that he does not understand why he crashed at the American MotoGP race, Sunday (16/4/2023) local time. The weekend in Austin actually went well at first for Pecco Bagnaia. The racer from Turin, Italy, appeared extraordinary to snatch victory at the Sprint Race and managed to get pole position. Pecco Bagnaia also led the race at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) from the start until he fell at Turn 2 on the eighth lap.
Many observers think that the pressure from the LCR Honda rider, Alex Rins, forced Bagnaia to make a big mistake and fall. However, Bagnaia said that he had done nothing wrong until the lowside crash occurred.
“I know exactly that I didn’t make a mistake,” said Bagnaia at Motociclismo. “I do everything perfectly. I did a lot of laps this weekend and never lost front tire grip. Now I crash in the race, without doing anything crazy.”
Pecco also admitted that he was not happy and would find out what happened to his ride. “In the end, my feeling (for the bike) is still great and it’s the best bike on the grid. However, you have to understand what happens if you fall and right now we don’t know the cause.”
This crash followed a similar incident in the previous race when he crashed at the 2023 Argentina MotoGP. At that time, the rider was in second place before falling at Turn 13 on lap 17. Bagnaia also initially said he did not know what caused him to crash at the Termas de Rio Hondo Circuit, although he later admitted that the crash could have been due to a puddle of water on the track.
Thanks to two crashes in the races in Argentina and the United States, Bagnaia has now thrown away 45 points. “The only thing I can do is do my best to win,” said Bagnaia. “I hope I didn’t fall but of course it will be more difficult if I don’t know why. I lost 45 points in the last two races and I don’t know why. If I know what happened, it will be easier to fix it. However, that is not possible at the moment.”
