Ducati wants to “protect” devastated Francesco Bagnaia…

Ducati team boss Davide Tardozzi said the Italian manufacturer wants to “protect” a "devastated" Francesco Bagnaia after he hit a new low during the MotoGP Indonesian Grand Prix.

Just a week after dominating at Motegi and indicating that his 2025 struggles were behind him, Bagnaia endured another nightmare weekend in Mandalika as he qualified 16th and ran at the back in both races.

He was already baffled by a lack of pace after finishing 14th and last in Saturday’s sprint, more than 13s behind the next-placed rider, but his weekend went from bad to worse on Sunday after he crashed out of 17th place on lap nine.

Bagnaia’s incident compounded a wretched weekend for Ducati, with team-mate Marc Marquez suffering a fracture to his shoulder after being taken out by Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi on the opening lap.

Speaking with Sky TV, Tardozzi stressed the importance of taking care of Bagnaia’s mental well-being during a difficult period for the two-time MotoGP champion.

“It's clear that Pecco is devastated right now, more as a person than as a rider,” said Tardozzi. “It's clear that we want to protect Pecco and his emotions.

“At this moment, if Pecco came with tears in his eyes [it wouldn't be a surprise]. It couldn't be otherwise, because he's a fast rider but he's also a very sensitive guy.

“Right now, we think it's best to leave him alone and work to put him in a position to perform at Phillip Island.”

Bagnaia skipped his post-race briefing with the media “as a consequence of the crash”, but released a statement in which he claimed he was still struggling to understand why he was the slowest rider of the field in Mandalika.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team (Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images)

“Very disappointing weekend, after what happened last week,” he said. “Pole position and winning both races. I was expecting to arrive here and… this track was never easy for me, but I always got good results.

“Also last year, I won the sprint race and finished third. This year, arriving after the Motegi GP, I didn’t find the same feeling as Motegi.

“I wasn’t able to find the same feeling as Motegi. I just struggled. We don’t have any answers for what happened this weekend.

“So, we just checked the data, and hope the engineers will find the solution for the next GPs and try to fight for the top three in the championship.

“I want to say sorry to the team for the crash. I was pushing, even if I was slower by 1.5s, I’m saying sorry because I wanted to close the gap to the second-last and I just crashed.”