Francesco Bagnaia may have partially redeemed himself with a solid recovery ride in the Catalan Grand Prix on Sunday, but it’s impossible to overlook the fact that he shouldn’t be starting so far down the grid.
In fact, if you exclude the 2022 Portuguese GP crash on slick tyres on a wet track, Saturday in Barcelona was Bagnaia’s worst qualifying result ever in MotoGP. Not even in his rookie season with Pramac in 2019 did he start a race lower than 18th on the grid.
