Bagnaia had certified second behind championship chief Jorge Martin, however was all the way down to 14th by the tip of lap 1 following a dreadful begin on his GP24.
Missing the pace to mount any kind of restoration, the Italian then ran extensive over the gravel on the exit of Flip 7 on the third lap, rejoining the monitor on the rear of the sector.
With it clear by then that the issue he was struggling was vital, the reigning champion returned to the Ducati storage to retire from a race for the third time in 2024.
Bagnaia’s troubles adopted a late crash in qualifying on Saturday morning, which pressured him to change to his second bike for the 13-lap dash.
However the Borgo Panigale marque nonetheless doesn’t perceive what precisely went mistaken together with his spare bike, with work anticipated to proceed in a single day forward of Sunday’s full-distance race at Le Mans.
“As quickly as I began on the sighting lap I felt one thing unusual after which within the warm-up lap I went extensive in nook seven already in an odd means,” Bagnaia stated.
“And [when I] began [the race], the bike had a very enormous wheelie. Then it was very tough to do roughly every little thing. I misplaced the entrance in nook six earlier than going extensive in nook seven, virtually in acceleration, so one thing [was] mistaken.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Crew
Picture by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“I really feel it was not working in the way in which I count on it to and it’s one thing that may occur.
“For tomorrow we’ll attempt to clear up every little thing, however right here we needed to change the bike from the crash of this morning and the opposite means possibly was to re-adapt a bit.
“However my staff is already checking every little thing. It is not straightforward to grasp when these sorts of issues occur, however my staff is so good and we’ll clear up every little thing.”
Bagnaia stated he was left with no choice however to return to the pitlane, because it was not secure to proceed the race.
“I retired as a result of one thing was not… it was harmful,” he admitted. “I am not the man that desires to retire. Additionally to have any new info for tomorrow it was higher to proceed, but it surely was higher to cease.”
With Bagnaia dropping out of competition early, Pramac rider Martin confronted no actual risk as he romped to his third sprint win of 2024 and cement his standing because the early championship favorite.
Bagnaia, in flip, now faces a 29-point deficit to Martin within the riders’ standings, having additionally retired from a crash-filled dash at Jerez a fortnight in the past.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Crew
Picture by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The 27-year-old says the troubles he confronted on Saturday afternoon at Le Mans could be traced all the way down to his incident in qualifying, as he urged the necessity to rating factors frequently to spice up his possibilities of successful a 3rd title.
“It is true that we have now to search out consistency, but it surely’s two weekends in a row that on Saturday that we needed to face some dangerous luck,” he added.
“It is dangerous luck that it comes from my errors of the morning as a result of with out this crash I used to be having the identical bike and every little thing was good.
“We weren’t anticipating a response like this for the dash.”