Bagnaia ‘not losing faith, always thinking about the championship’

That has left the factory Ducati rider just tenth in the world championship, 38-points behind joint leaders Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Alex Rins (Suzuki).

But Bagnaia insists he is not losing faith in mounting a 2022 title challenge, having clawed back a larger points margin last season, when he was 70-points behind Quartararo after Silverstone.

Although Quartararo went on to win the championship by a comfortable margin, Bagnaia had slashed the Frenchman's final advantage by 44-points, to 26. A gap that would have been even smaller had Bagnaia not fallen from the lead in Misano.

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“I will stop thinking about the championship when there will not be a possibility [of winning it] anymore,” Bagnaia said after last Sunday’s Portimao contest.

“But this is not the case, I am 38 points behind the leader, and last year I was 70 points behind with 6 races remaining. So, never give up, always think about the championship, always think about pushing.

“You lose the faith in the championship only when you have no more possibilities.”

Bagnaia rode from last to eighth place in Portimao, having only been passed fit to race on Sunday morning after hurting his shoulder in a heavy qualifying fall while using slicks on a damp track.

“We had a bit of bad luck in qualifying, it was the right moment to use the slick tyres, but I touched a wet patch and I crashed,” he said.

“My shoulder was hurting a lot, it was very difficult to ride, but I'm happy that my feeling was incredible with my bike [in the race] and the pace was quite strong.

“In the first part of the race I was just waiting a bit to see if my shoulder was OK, because I was struggling a bit in the braking, and in the change of direction. Then I was starting to feel better and I was quite strong, because I was recovering a lot of time from the riders in front of me.

“In general, it has been quite a good race. For sure I was not hoping for eighth position, but after the big crash, the question was if I was able to race, and we did quite a good performance given I was starting last. So we can be happy about that.”

Bagnaia finished second to team-mate Jack Miller at Jerez last season, after Quartararo faded from the lead with arm pump issues, for what was his third podium in the opening four rounds of 2021.

"These days off were crucial to rest and recover my strength,” Bagnaia said ahead of this weekend's Jerez return. “Race after race, my feeling with the Desmosedici GP continues to improve. Now we arrive at Jerez, where we finished on the podium last year, to finally be among the protagonists of the weekend. “