Pecco Bagnaia's smoking Ducati survived until the end of the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi - but the fact he wasn't ordered to pull over remains a source of confusion for soem of Ducati's MotoGP rivals.
Bagnaia was comfortably ahead of team-mate Marc Marquez during the Motegi race when smoke first started to become visible emitting from the exhaust of his bike on acceleration, with the issue getting progressively worse until the final laps of the race as he eased off towards the chequered flag, eventually conceding most of his four-second lead to Marquez (which was then re-established as Marquez rolled out on the run to the flag).
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Indonesian Grand Prix, Bagnaia confirmed that his team had identified the cause of the problem and said it was nothing significant - so much so that he hopes to be able to continue to use the engine in the final five races of the year.
That is a key factor for Bagnaia, given that he has only one new engine left in his eight-race allocation - an engine that cannot be deployed until the Malaysian race after this weekend in Lombok and the next race in Australia.
“I think they explained it to me well,” he joked when asked about it by The Race in the pre-event press conference, “but I didn’t understand it well!
“The thing is that the engine is safe. It was a little filter that wasn’t working good, and it started to smoke a bit. Thankfully it wasn’t unsafe.
“When I saw the race back, honestly it was quite scary, but luckily I finished the race and I didn’t get any penalty and it’s good that the engine is safe.”
However, despite Bagnaia’s efforts to pour oil on troubled waters, it’s believed by The Race’s sources in the MotoGP paddock that multiple rival teams have expressed safety concerns about race control’s decision not to put out the black-and-orange flag.
That signals to a rider that "their motorcycle has mechanical problems likely to endanger themselves or others, and that they must immediately leave the track", and would have cost Bagnaia his win.
Representatives from the International Race Team Association (IRTA), whose role includes MotoGP technical control and scrutineering, were seen on TV in discussion with Ducati’s engineers in their garage during the latter laps of the race - but ultimately the decision was made to allow Bagnaia to continue.
That has, according to The Race’s sources, led some teams to confusion about why Bagnaia wasn’t signalled to stop given they feel that there was, at the time, no way for IRTA and race control to understand the cause of the problem and whether or not it was causing a dangerous situation for those behind.
“It was a strange situation, let’s say,” explained Aprilia rider (and close friend of Bagnaia’s) Marco Bezzecchi, “in terms of safety.
“I saw the smoke with a couple of laps to the end. I crossed a smoke cloud, and I expected it was [Joan] Mir because he was two or three seconds in front of me.
“Then I watched the race and I understood, and for sure I was a bit surprised in terms of safety.”
MotoGP declined to comment when asked about the matter by The Race - but it is understood that MotoGP's stance is that Bagnaia's problem did not meet the threshold of a technical issue flag.
