MotoGP, Sportrik Media - Francesco Bagnaia of Ducati has revealed that a braking issue forced him to retire from the 2026 Spanish MotoGP at Jerez.
The factory Ducati rider was running in ninth position when he was forced to stop, marking his second retirement of the season in a race ultimately won by Alex Marquez.
Bagnaia admitted that he had been struggling with the bike from the early stages of the race, with the situation worsening lap by lap until continuing was no longer possible.
“A small problem. The team is working to understand the situation, but it’s something that can happen. I started the race a bit uncomfortable but was still competitive. Then lap by lap it got worse and I needed to stop,” Bagnaia said.
He highlighted that the key issue was the difficulty in reducing speed, pointing clearly towards a braking-related problem.
“It was very difficult to reduce the speed,” he added.
Bagnaia’s struggles contrast with the performance of Alex Marquez, who secured victory after showing strong pace throughout the weekend.
The Italian acknowledged that Gresini Racing had executed a stronger weekend, extracting more performance from the Ducati GP26 package.
“I think we made a small step forward today, my feeling on the bike was a bit better. But Alex and Gresini did an amazing job. They improved a lot, so we need to study them and maybe copy them,” he explained.
Bagnaia also confirmed that the post-race test at Jerez will be key to evaluating new solutions and closing the performance gap.
“We need to understand the new solutions Ducati brings and try to copy Alex to improve,” he said.
His retirement, combined with Marc Marquez’s crash, extends a difficult run for the factory Ducati team, which has now gone multiple races without placing a works bike on the podium.
Focus now shifts to technical development ahead of the next round at Le Mans, where consistency will be critical to returning to competitive form.
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