Bagnaia: 'I made a mistake, totally agree with penalty'

Bagnaia mistakenly thought he had taken the chequered flag and rolled off the throttle on the exit of the first chicane. But the session was still ‘live’, forcing Alex Marquez and Enea Bastianini to take evasive action to avoid the factory Ducati star.

The Italian, seeking to extend his MotoGP win streak to four in a row this weekend, realised his error and gestured an apology. The incident was put under investigation by the FIM Stewards, who subsequently handed Bagnaia the grid penalty.

“I think it's correct. I totally agree with the penalty,” said the factory Ducati rider, who finished the day second fastest to future team-mate Bastianini.

“I did a mistake, I thought [the session] was already finished, that I had already taken the chequered flag. But I hadn't, so I made a mistake. I’ve already said sorry to the Stewards.”

Why did Bagnaia get a grid penalty and not a long lap?

With Franco Morbidelli and Bagnaia’s team-mate Jack Miller serving long lap penalties for the same infringement, even the #63 was curious to know why he had received a grid penalty.

“I asked why three grid places and not a long lap? They told me it’s because it's the first time I’ve done it. For the first time you have like a warning, that is the grid position penalty, and then the long lap.”

Miller confirmed: “I had three places on the grid in Argentina and then the long lap [in Germany].”

Bagnaia agreed that the grid penalty is a lesser punishment than a long lap at Misano - but might not have been at somewhere like Silverstone, where the long lap was only estimated to have cost title rival Fabio Quartararo 1-1.5s.

• 2023 MotoGP World Championship - Rider line-up so far

Front row now more important than ever

The grid penalty puts even more pressure on Bagnaia to finish in the top three during qualifying, to ensure he doesn't start lower than the second row.

“In terms of speed for the race [the penalty changes] nothing, but in terms of qualifying I surely need to do a front row because starting from the second row is already more difficult, but it's acceptable. [But] from the third row it starts to become too difficult.”

The grid penalty wasn’t the only incident for Bagnaia on Friday, with a small fall during FP2.

“Just in front of me was Luca Marini. I was riding faster than him, so I just tried to be more on the inside to overtake him on the corner after. But I haven’t done so many kilometres around here, so I didn't know that the white lines are not grippy!” he joked of his local track. “So I touched the white lines and crashed, my mistake.”

Bagnaia is currently 12 points behind Aleix Espargaro and 44 from Quartararo, who were seventh and fifth fastest respectively on day one at Misano.

‘Marc Marquez will race at Aragon’

Responding to the news that Marc Marquez is set to make a MotoGP comeback at next week’s test, Bagnaia said that he expects the eight-time world champion to be on the grid at the following Aragon round.

“I think he will race in Aragon,” Bagnaia said. “I think we all know well Marc and we all know that he will arrive in the Misano test on Tuesday and he will want to go fast.

“So I think that if after the first day he will recognise that he’s already in a good situation, he will be part of Aragon GP. It's something that we can be happy about, to have Marc back again.”

Bagnaia beat Marquez in a head-to-head battle to take his first MotoGP victory at Aragon last season.