'It looks terrible' - Bagnaia infuriated by Di Giannantonio chat airing

Pecco Bagnaia says he has been made to look "terrible" by the airing of a conversation with Ducati MotoGP stablemate Fabio Di Giannantonio, which he believes was taken out of context.

Footage released by Spanish broadcaster DAZN, captured at Misano between various broadcaster interviews as Di Giannantonio semi-privately quizzed Bagnaia about his struggles with the bike, picked up a lot of steam online due to one particular phrase by Bagnaia - a suggestion that Ducati "isn't letting" him use a more straightforward set-up.

Bagnaia fully anticipated questions about this coming into Thursday at the Red Bull Ring - and said that while he regretted his "not correct" phrasing, he also clearly felt he was treated unfairly by DAZN.

"You know me very well, you listen to me every day when we are racing," Bagnaia told the assembled print journalists. "I think that many times it was asked to me: 'Is the team supporting you?'

"And I always said yes, the team is doing the maximum to help me.

"The video that was out of recording was out of context [...] The video is not complete. We were speaking about one more thing [specific part].

"Sometimes you say things in the wrong way. But what I always said is that Ducati supported me a lot - and what I meant is that I tried to put and remove [certain parts] many times already, so Ducati is not allowing me to do [it] anymore. But just because I already did many times - and I don't want to continue this kind of thing. What came out of my mouth was [said] in the wrong way.

"But then what happened next is a disaster for me. Because it's completely out of [devoid of] respect. And the relationship between journalists and riders needs respect.

"Yesterday we spoke about it [within Ducati]. It's normal that, the way it comes out on television, it looks terrible."

The footage has since been erased by DAZN, which has apologised to Bagnaia - who said Ducati understood the situation and "know that I'm not completely crazy".

"It's clear that you can take our words and put them online in the way you want. Because you can say three words and can have two different complete contexts. Positive or negative. 

"You [media] are the ones that need to be transparent, and understand what we are saying. But I know that sometimes it's important to have a nice clickbait title.

"But I always try to be as transparent as possible. But I will try to be less. In the future maybe you will have less from me."

Di Giannantonio, who ended up an unwitting third party in the controversy, was also displeased on Bagnaia's behalf.

"I don't want to say something about this story [specifically] because it's not my story, but I can say that us as riders, especially us as Italians, we have known each other for a long time - and we always talk about bikes, it's completely normal for us. What happened, it was a thing outside the cameras, but apparently it was inside. So I think it was a bit unfair [to air it].

"But the problem is now that we always have cameras - so we are going to a world where we cannot talk anymore.

"Journalists should have a sense of limit. It's like, I can be in a pub talking about bikes and I don't have to be worried that somewhere there is a journalist with a mic, because it was a friendly chat.

"For sure it's a thing that we can improve as a sport, also because I think it's not nice for the sport, honestly."

As for his specific conversation with Bagnaia, Di Giannantonio said he was keen to offer his advice to Bagnaia because he had benefitted from the works Ducati's rider input in the past.

"When I was struggling with the Ducati, I was always talking with Pecco and trying to get as much info as I can, and he was always helping me, trying to give me the best advice to improve - and when I can, I try to do the same with other riders that I have known for a long time. So it was a completely normal chat for us."