Francesco Bagnaia leaves Qatar fourth in the championship standings, butඣ rues mistake that cost him the chance to fight for vic🍃tory. 

The Italian had an⛦ uncharacteristically poor start as he struggled to deploy his start device. It meant Bagnaia slipped from sixth to 12th by the end of lap one. 

H﷽owever, the for꧒mer Moto2 champion was impressive as he quickly came back through the field and up to third place behind Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco. 

But just as the race came into its crucial final laps, Bagnaia made a mistake heading into turn one, an erro🐻r that not only cost him the chance at victory, but also the podium. 

Bagnaia called the mistake ‘unacceptable’ as a factory rider, saying: "I have to lear༺n. In a factory team these type of errors 💜are unacceptable. 

"Without this I was fighting for the top positions. I didn’t st𓄧ruggle more than Pramac, but the result isn’t on the same line as my ri🍬ding today, I think." 

Speaking about the start and what exactly happened, the Italian said: "I just strug🌺gled more because I was starting 6th. My start device didn’t work well as I wasn’t able to put it in✃. 

"Then I started ✃to recover and my pace was really strong today. I think I was able to manage a great pace and I recovered a lot of positions. This confidence I had with the bike made me make an error in turn 1."

🔯Given how quickly Bagnaia regained the positions he lost, a podium certainly looked to be on the c𝄹ards. 

The 24 year-old believes he had the pace to win when followiไng Zarco, but the error came after eventual race winner Fabio Qu꧋artararo had gone past. 

"I started to think it was possible to win the race when I was behind Zarco. I was controlling them and 💯I was trying to let the rear tyre breathe," said Bagnaia. 

"It was important to arrive at the end of the race to let the rear tyre breathe. But then Fabio overtook me. I was in the tunnel of slipstream behin🌺d Zarco, and when I braked it was impossible to stop. 

"The𓆉se are big mistakes I can’t repeat for sure. These mistakes cost🍨 me the podium."

While it will be disappointing for Bagnaia to have not taken at least one win at a circuit that’s been very fortuitous for Ducati, he leaves Doha fourth in th𝐆e standings 1ಌ6 points behind the ultra consistent Zarco. 

But as we’ve seen, Ducati are not the ไonly team to enjoy the bright lights of Qatar, as Yamaha took both race wins.&n💖bsp;

And having compete✤d strongly against both Maverick Vinales and Quartararo over these two weeks, Bagnaia has been able to analyse where the Yamahas are strong and where Ducati have the advantage for future races. 

"For sure Yamaha has worked a lot this winter. We’ve seen 2 races and 2 victories. Their bike is very compet🀅itive and It’s a track where they’re really strong," added Bagnaia.

"We can 𝕴use the power in the straight and in the last part of acceleration, but they can turn the b🧔ike. Their bikes are very balanced. 

"This weekend Yamaha was so strong in the exit. Last week I was losing time to Maverick in acceleration.🤡 This week it was difficult to ovꦐertake Fabio on the straight. 

"☂We have to continue working and these 2 races have given me a lot of data to learn. I’m happy about that, but I’m not happy about the result. I though🦋t it was possible to finish on the podium and we wanted something more."