Bagnaia gives front tyre a rest

Forced out of his Qatar MotoGP debut by a broken wing, Moto2 champion Francesco Bagnaia claimed his first premier-class points with 14th place in Argentina.

Starting 17th, the Pramac Ducati rider gained three places in the opening three laps but found he was putting too much stress on the front tyre and had to adapt his style accordingly.

"I started well, but I was pushing in the wrong way, with too much [stress] on the front, which put the tyre temperature too high and it was very difficult to stop the bike in the correct way," said the Italian, who denied he had been alerted to the issue by a dashboard warning light, thought to be used by some teams.

"So I 'breathed' two or three laps with the front, for don't push too much, and then it started to go well again and I finished the race riding in a good style.

"I was braking more on the straight for maybe less speed in the middle of the corner and it was better," he revealed. "But the important thing has been that I finished the race, because in Qatar it was impossible to finish.

"Two points are good, we worked well this weekend and now we arrive in Austin, which I hope can be a positive weekend for me.

"Last year I won in Moto2 but it's a completely different type of riding, so I will give my 100 percent like this weekend, understand all the secrets of the track and try to find a good set-up.

"We just need to improve on the first laps and Austin can be a different weekend for me."

Petronas Yamaha SRT's Fabio Quartararo was the top rookie in eighth place, 12s ahead of Bagnaia.