This lack of performance on Saturdays is starting to become a trend for Bagnaia who now sees himself 28 points down on championship leader Jorge Martin.

If Bagnaia is to reaffirm his title defense ambitions, he will need to find a solution for his woeful Saturdays, which are costing him some crucial points for the championship.

As for Sunday, Bagnaia pointed out that with the change of tires, he will be right in the mix for a podium, as he felt that his lack of performance in the Sprint race cannot be attributed to set-up-related issues.

“I lost the start because the rear started to spin and then I had a wheelie and I had to get rid of the clutch and I lost several positions.”

“Then in corner two, I had to brake a lot because Jack was having some moments and I had to brake and other riders overtook me.”

“So from the start, it was quite difficult and then my feeling wasn’t the same as the morning. The rear grip was much less and we have to check on the data to understand why.”

When asked if his late-race pace would serve as any consolation…

“I don’t know how much is positive, ” said Bagnaia. “The thing is tomorrow we will not change anything on a setting because my feeling was too bad to say that the problem was the setting.”

“So we will just change the rear tire and then everything will be okay.”

“My target was to fight for the podium because the pace was to fight for the podium till this morning. This afternoon, not so much.”

“Tomorrow we will have the same target, we know that the potential is the same so we will fight for it.”