Francesco Bagnaia devastated Davide Tardozzi

Ducati head Davide Tardozzi says that the team want to "protect" Francesco Bagnaia, who had a disastrous Grand Prix Indonesia weekend after winning a double at the previous round in Japan. Former world champion Bagnaia crashed out in Sunday's race and also struggled on Saturday in the Sprint, and he failed to give a press conference after the race.

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Video credit: TNT Sports

Ducati head Davide Tardozzi said that the team wants to "protect" Francesco Bagnaia after he was left "devastated" following a poor Grand Prix Indonesia race on Sunday.

The Italian had high hopes coming into the weekend as he was coming off the back of a shock double victory in the previous round in Japan.

The two-time world champion had reportedly fashioned a bike using the 2025 Ducati engine, as well as a mix of parts from both this year’s model and the previous campaign’s.

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However, it became less clear how much of that bike had made its way to Indonesia, after he struggled in qualifying, failing to get out of Q1.

The Sprint was no better as he finished in 14th, 13 seconds behind his closest rival. On Sunday, he could only manage 17th place, but things went from bad to worse when he crashed out on the ninth lap, ending his hopes of scoring a point.

His performances of late mean that his third-place position in the world title standings is under threat from Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi, though Bezzecchi did himself no favours when he crashed out on Sunday as well, taking out Marc Marquez in the process.

Marquez is now set to travel to Madrid for further examination as he is believed to have suffered a fracture to his right collarbone, which could potentially see him miss some of the remaining races this season, with the next to come in Australia.

Bagnaia has cut an increasingly frustrated figure in front of the press of late, and he did not give any comments in public after the race.

Speaking to Sky TV, Tardozzi said that the team’s focus was on his mental state above any concerns over his performance as a rider.

"It's clear that Pecco is devastated right now, more as a person than as a rider," he said. "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."

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‘Very disappointing’ - Bagnaia releases statement

Although Bagnaia did not show for the press, he released a statement expressing his unhappiness with the weekend.

"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."

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