Francesco Bagnaia admits he has struggled so far at the Valencia MotoGP round, in part because of his focus on trying to clinch the championship.

The Ducati Lenovo Team rider arrived at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo with a 23-point lead over Fabio Quartararo and, with race wins this season firmly in his favour, he need only finish 14th in Sunday’s race to win the title.

He was just 17th in Free Practice 1 and while that was not cause for concern given how Bagnaia often attacks a grand prix weekend, the Italian was just ninth in Free Practice 2.

He admitted he is wary of making mistakes, having dropped into Qualifying 1 when he crashed in practice at Sepang, last time out, and then crashed again in Qualifying 2 on that Malaysian Grand Prix weekend.

“I was struggling this morning, I improved my feeling in the session but it wasn’t enough,” said ‘Pecco’.

“This afternoon was the same, I started a bit better than this morning but the feeling wasn’t the best.

“But then the second exit already I was able to do a great step in front, I had a really similar pace to Fabio and Marc [Marquez].

“It was a good run and my feeling improved a lot. Then the time attack was quite good, but still I miss a bit of feeling because I don’t want to make mistakes like I did in Sepang.

“And today it was easy to commit a mistake, with the wind.

“So, I accepted to be a bit slower in some parts of the track because I was struggling to enter with more corner speed. Something is limiting me, but not so much today.

“My feeling wasn’t the best at the start. Like always, the bike is quite different compared to last year and at this track I feel it a bit more because in the braking I was struggling a bit more than normal.

“Also, the rear grip was a bit low. We worked in that direction and finally we improved a lot.

“But we are still missing, and for the time attack my mindset for the championship has limited me more.”

On the plus side for Bagnaia, he is only one position and 0.005s slower than Quartararo, and confident of going directly into Q2.

“I will try to be in Q2, that will be the main thing,” he remarked.

“I think with the improvement of today we can be in the top 10.

“Then the pace, the second exit I had 16 laps on the rear tyre and the pace was quite, quite good.

“Very close to Fabio, who is the fastest at the moment, but we were 0.005s back compared to him.

“I will try to do a really good time attack in the morning [Free Practice 3].

“We have to see the conditions because it will be more cold but less windy, so maybe it can be better for us.”