Bagnaia sinks to 19th at his reference circuit

Francesco Bagnaia hoped Misano would stop his run of difficult weekends. Friday did the opposite: 18th in FP1, 0.993s behind Marc Márquez, he fell to 19th in Practice and must enter Q1. At a circuit he knows intimately and where he has won two Grands Prix, the gap to the other Ducatis matters more than the position alone.

Bezzecchi led, the Márquez brothers followed, and Fabio Di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli put two more Ducatis in the top five. The bike is competitive; Bagnaia's ability to use the front and build a fast lap remains the issue. He said on Thursday that he did not need new parts so much as some older solutions back.

Q1 now leaves no margin against Bastianini, Raúl Fernández, Fermín Aldeguer and Joan Mir. Only two advance, and failure would bury him in Sprint traffic.