Two-time MotoGP champion Pecco Bagnaia has been left facing yet more questions about what his real 2025 performance levels actually are after the first day of practice at the Australian Grand Prix.
Bagnaia was able to improve upon his dreadful outing last time out in Indonesia by progressing directly to Q2 - but that came only after he discovered a puzzling contrast between the two Ducati Desmosedicis available to him.
Déjà vu for @PeccoBagnaia?
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 17, 2025
Just like in FP1, he immediately reverts back to the pits after one lap 🔙#AustralianGP 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/avO1I4V4LE
The fast and flowing nature of the Australian circuit is mitigating issues Bagnaia has been having in braking hard for much of the season - thought they weren't a hurdle at the notoriously brake-demanding Motegi, where he had taken a double win.
He has been clear at Phillip Island after Friday that, despite finishing the day in a good-enough ninth, he had nowhere near the same feeling as at Motegi.
And, to make the situation even more confusing for the Italian, his pace is coming on only one of his two bikes despite the two machines theoretically being identical in spec both to each other and to last time out in Mandalika, where he crashed out of the race while fighting for last place.
In both Friday sessions at Phillip Island, Bagnaia initially went out on one of his two bikes - the onboard camera showing a big amount of shaking - before parking it right away.
Change of plans after one lap 🔄@PeccoBagnaia didn't enjoy a smooth start to Friday proceedings ❌#AustralianGP 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/hrshzioWzL
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 16, 2025
“Luckily one bike is working,” he explained. “The other one, for some reason, has the same problem as Indonesia. So it's quite difficult to push, to make laps. Luckily this time I have a bike that's working in a normal way.
“I don't feel like in Japan, I feel like before, still having problems on braking, in the entrance. But the team is working, they are on it, and trying to understand something. Because the bikes are the same as Indonesia.
“And this time just one is working. So, very difficult to comprehend. So, they are on it, to understand and try to solve.”
While the other machine has proven at least good enough to be competitive, Bagnaia acknowledged he isn't at his peak.
“Like this, I cannot do a race like Japan,” he insisted. “If I start well and I overtake in the first laps, I can be in the front, but if not I remain stuck there. So, we are just trying to understand.
“I think was quite important today because maybe we understood something more compared to other races. So, let's see. It's difficult to understand well but today I had some kind of problems that I had also in other situations.
“But we were lucky enough to be in the top 10. Let's see, let's work for tomorrow.”
