Since the sprint race at the Barcelona round earlier this month, Bagnaia has seen his championship lead whittled down from 66 points to just 13 ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi.
After crashing out of second last weekend in India, Bagnaia admitted he had been suffering “big problems” with braking in recent races, allowing his Ducati colleagues Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi to close up to him in the title battle.
