Francesco Bagnaia explained that a long day of testing at Misano allowed him to pinpoint a key aspect of his feeling with the Ducati. The contributions and advice from Casey Stoner proved to be “extremely important” for the Italian champion.

MotoGP | Bagnaia: “I learned something from the 71-lap test at Misano. Casey Stoner’s help was crucial.” Francesco Bagnaia explained how the long day of testing at Misano allowed him to find a key point in his feeling with the Ducati. Casey Stoner’s input and advice proved “super important” for the Italian champion.

Bagnaia, Misano For Francesco Bagnaia and Ducati, Monday’s official test at Misano represented the last chance of the season to address the Italian’s corner-entry issues away from a race weekend. Coming off a nightmare weekend in front of his home crowd—out of the points with a 13th-place finish in the Sprint and then crashing while seventh in the race—the world champion needed to make the most of this final testing opportunity. And there were positive signs: Bagnaia finished the day sixth, ahead of his GP-winning teammate Marc Marquez in the afternoon session, and eighth overall. “I’m quite happy because we were able to focus more on this year’s package. I have to say that it’s not easy to know which direction to take because, unlike in the past, now you have to look elsewhere for performance,” Bagnaia told Sky Italia. “With all the time available today, we tried different solutions, shifted the weights, and I have to say we figured something out.” Despite a crash at Turn 1 in the afternoon, Bagnaia managed to lap a second faster than his best race time – set on used tyres, after just eight of 27 laps completed – showing a very competitive pace. “**I was quite competitive. I was super fast on pace. I did my best lap with 21 laps on the tyres, something I hadn’t managed to do in the last few races, nor during the season. It’s true that this track helps me a little, but apart from the crash it was a very positive day. I don’t know if we’ll be able to take everything to Japan, because we still need to understand the situation better. But I’m pretty confident that we’re going in the right direction.”** After the false starts seen this season, the real question remains whether Bagnaia will be able to pick up where he left off at the next Japanese GP. “We’ll see. I think some solutions will definitely work, while others will need to be explored further in Japan. The direction we took today won’t take long to bear fruit.”

Casey Stoner at Misano: “I saw Casey working on the bike!” Big surprise in the Ducati garage: former world champion Casey Stoner was spotted assisting Bagnaia, both inside and outside the garage. “This morning, when I arrived, I saw Casey working on the bike!” revealed Bagnaia. “It’s fantastic to have this kind of relationship with him, it helps me a lot, even when working with Manu Poggiali. They have an incredible eye: they already knew what I was feeling on the bike, so it was great to get this feedback from another perspective as well. And Casey is always very analytical; it was super important for me to have him here today.” World Championship Standings: After losing ground to both his championship-leading teammate and Gresini’s Alex Marquez, Bagnaia now sits just eight points ahead of Marco Bezzecchi’s Aprilia, in a tight battle for third place in the championship.