At the start of the month, Bagnaia had appeared on course to score back-to-back titles, having arrived in Barcelona with a 62-point lead following his fifth victory of the season in Austria.
But after extending that advantage even further in the Barcelona sprint, Bagnaia suffered a major highside at the start of the Catalan GP that knocked him out of the race and compromised his physical condition for the next round at Misano.
Bagnaia still carried a healthy 36-point lead coming to Delhi for the inaugural Indian GP, but the Italian rider lost control of his Ducati once again, recording his third retirement of the season.
The 26-year-old had been running second on lap 13 of 21, having just passed main title rival Jorge Martin, when he fell off his GP23 and hit the deck at Turn 5.
With VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi winning the race from pole position and Martin holding onto second from Yamaha rival Fabio Quartararo, the DNF comes as a major blow to Bagnaia's title aspirations as it has shrunk his lead to just 13.
Bagnaia explained that he had to ride on the limit in order to put up a fight to Ducati stablemates Bezzecchi and Martin and had to "accept" the risk of racing the hard front tyre having not felt comfortable on the medium.
“I was pushing,” said Bagnaia, who was one of the only two riders to opt for a hard front tyre on the grid.
“We accepted the risk to race with the harder [tyre]. We don't know why but honestly all the other Ducatis were accepting the medium front more, and I was not. I had some trouble with the medium and was having a lot of locking.
“I was having a lot of problems on the braking. Till that moment it was good. I was feeling better than on the medium, on the limit, absolutely on the limit, and when you are too on the limit it's something that can happen.
Source: Autosport