Ducati Sporting Club UK > News Items > Ducati Press Releases > The Ducati Lenovo Team narrowly miss out on direct seed to Q2 at Montmeló: Francesco Bagnaia twelfth in Practice

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MotoGP | 15 May 2026

The Ducati Lenovo Team narrowly miss out on direct seed to Q2 at Montmeló: Francesco Bagnaia twelfth in Practice

• Alex Márquez is second with the Ducati of the Gresini Racing Team

The Ducati Lenovo Team took to the track for the opening day of the Monster Energy Grand Prix of Catalunya at Montmeló. Francesco Bagnaia was twelfth quickest at the end of the Practice session and will therefore have to take part in Q1 at the iconic track near Barcelona.

Bagnaia worked hard with the team on the set-up of his Desmosedici GP in both sessions. In the closing stages of Practice, Pecco managed to bounce back to eighth position before ultimately finishing twelfth — only 81 thousandths of a second shy of the top ten.

The Ducati Lenovo Team will return to action tomorrow at 10:10 local time (GMT +2) for Free Practice 2, which will be followed by Q1 (10:50) and Q2 (11:15). The sixth Sprint of the season will be contested over a 12-lap distance from 15:00.

Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 12th
“We made some adjustments that didn't work as intended, and this made things a bit more difficult. With used tyres, I was almost quicker and surely more consistent. This is something that could help us in terms of set-up. I felt a bit better in the final run and managed to improve my lap-time, but it wasn't enough. In the end, we're all very close, so given how the day unfolded, it was difficult to think we would secure the direct seed to Q2. We did make a step forward, so now we only need to improve with fresh tyres.”