Pramac Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia has shrugged off the heartbreak of missing a maiden MotoGP podium due to an engine failure with six laps left to run at Jerez.

The Italian had passed and gapped two factory Yamahas for second place when his Desmosedici GP20 began to smoke and he was given the meatball flag by race direction, meaning get off the track now.

“The engine problem, I don’t know what happened. We have to give my engine to Ducati to see what really happened. I had started feeling the bike was going a little bit slower,” said Bagnaia, speaking at the track.

“And then I saw that it was smoking. So race direction gave me the black and orange flag and I had to stop. I saw the black and orange flag on the dashboard.

“The important thing now will be to be fast and strong again like this weekend. I’m just thinking about that.

Next will arrive Brno and then two races in Austria, so three great races for us. I just want to try to repeat this weekend. Let’s see what happens there, but I’m really sure that if we work like this weekend, we can fight.”

Bagnaia has finally worked out the way his GP20 needs to be ridden in order to get in the top-five fight and stay in it.

“Last year one problem was braking for me. Last weekend I was stronger, but I ran very wide so many times.

“So this weekend we worked well and I was stopping the bike more in the first part of the braking. And also, for the acceleration, I am trying to not make the rear tyre spin.”

Second was a reality for the youngster as he managed to put one over on both works Yamahas, including his VR46 Academy boss.

“I saw I was faster than the riders in front of me, so I just tried to be calm at the start, and when I started seeing that the other riders were struggling, I tried to overtake them.

“When I overtook them, with my pace I was starting to open a gap and then I had the failure. So I’m a little bit sad about that, but looking at our weekend, I’m happy with the work done.”