Tardozzi: ‘We can’t crucify’ Bagnaia, ‘he has matured from the mistakes’

After a quiet performance in the Sprint race, the reigning MotoGP champion began to make a charge in the Grand Prix as he battled past Alex Marquez for second place.

But after battling hard with the Gresini rider for two laps, Bagnaia then crashed at the penultimate corner shortly after opening up a six tenths advantage. 

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After a sensational end to last season, coupled with a very strong pre-season and his double win at the season-opener, mistakes seemed to be erased from his game prior to losing the front-end at turn 13.  

"I heard what Bagnaia said as soon as he got back," Tardozzi told Motosprint.com. "He made a serious mistake. There are still 19 races and I believe that already from Austin, Pecco will have the opportunity to make up for it."

"I think he was at the limit in that corner, Bezzecchi had more than a 5 second advantage and I don't think he thought of going to catch him. 

"Maybe he was under a bit of pressure because he had Marquez just six tenths behind him and with Morbidelli coming back, we signalled it to him."

The good news for Bagnaia is that even though mistakes seem to still be a chink in his armour, the pace he’s showing will continue to put him in the hunt for victories at most events.

Given how he dealt with the pressure of being in a title fight last season, more mistakes would be a surprise from Bagnaia going forward, which Tardozzi believes to be true as well after his factory Ducati rider analysed and learned from his error. 

Tardozzi added: "It seems incredible to say it today but I think Pecco has matured from the mistakes he made in the first part of last year. 

"Today he repeated it, he analysed it in detail with his engineers. He is suffering particularly from this crash because he was aware that it shouldn't be done, he had to bring home points. 

"You have to bring home points in the first part of the season and then attack in the second part as I said all winter. 

"Unfortunately he made a mistake but we can't crucify him, we have to support him and help him."