Bagnaia Signals Fresh Start After Sepang Test Day Two

Pecco Bagnaia shows further signs that his 2025 MotoGP issues are resolved after a positive second day of Sepang testing on the Ducati GP26.

Ifan Apriyana | 4 February 2026, 21:24

Notifikasi

Pecco Bagnaia © Michelin

MotoGP, Sportrik Media - Pecco Bagnaia continues to provide strong indications that the difficulties which defined his 2025 MotoGP season are behind him, following a productive second day of the Sepang test aboard the Ducati GP26.

The 2025 campaign proved highly challenging for the double MotoGP world champion, with an inconsistent front-end feeling on the GP25 undermining his performance throughout the season. Bagnaia finished the year with just two victories and fifth in the standings, a sharp contrast to 2024 when he claimed 11 grand prix wins during a title fight that went down to the final rounds.

Bagnaia had already expressed optimism after his first run with the 2026 Ducati during the Valencia post-season test last November, and that confidence carried into Wednesday’s running at Sepang despite weather conditions limiting track time later in the day.

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It was a positive day, like yesterday.
Luckily the weather was good in the morning and we were able to test more of the new parts we received, and I found another advantage.

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We should have finished this test in the afternoon, but unfortunately the conditions were not right.
In any case, being able to push hard is already a positive compared to last year.

Since we didn’t run in the afternoon, we now have an extra tyre for Thursday to do a time attack.
This morning, in race configuration, we set some excellent lap times, and I think everyone will improve tomorrow.

Bagnaia ended the rain-affected second day eighth overall. Across the opening days of the test, his main priority has been restoring confidence under braking and on corner entry, an area that caused persistent issues during the 2025 season.

Yesterday my main target was to get the feeling back on braking and entry.
As soon as we started, I found it.

Being able to ride the bike in the way I want and prefer is much better,
also for the technicians, because they can understand our feedback more clearly.

With this kind of feeling, we can work more and understand the items we are testing.
So it is better for everybody.

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Bagnaia also acknowledged encountering minor testing issues during Wednesday’s programme, without specifying the exact nature of the problem. Ducati opted to revert to a standard configuration to ensure continuity in the test plan.

When you test new items, something can start to work in a different way that is not the correct one.
So we decided to remove it and use the standard version.

The standard one worked more or less the same, a bit worse and a bit slower than the new one,
but it was good enough to continue.

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Apart from that, I was quite happy with today’s lap time.
The lap time this morning was incredible, considering the set-up we were using.

Standings MOTOGP DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP

POS	RIDER / TEAM	PTS
1	Marco Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing	56
2	Jorge Martin Aprilia Racing	45
3	Pedro Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	42
4	Fabio Di Giannantonio Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team	37
5	Marc Marquez Ducati Lenovo Team	34
6	Ai Ogura Trackhouse MotoGP Team	33
7	Raul Fernandez Trackhouse MotoGP Team	29
8	Alex Marquez BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP	13
9	Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	13
10	Franco Morbidelli Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team	12