Bagnaia lost the world championship lead for the first time since the Spanish GP in April after struggling to eighth in Saturday’s sprint at Mandalika as title rival Jorge Martin won.
It capped off a generally difficult day for Bagnaia, who failed to get out of Q1 and qualified 13th, battling rear grip issues on the Michelin soft rubber.
Bagnaia ran line astern with team-mate Bastianini for much of the sprint but was unable to make an overtake stick.
This led to questions about why Ducati didn’t employ team orders to move Bagnaia up to seventh and limit Martin’s points lead to six instead of seven.
“I didn’t have team orders last year, so we don’t have it this year,” Bagnaia started.
“Last year was the same bike, I was fighting for the championship. We will never have this kind of team orders.
“It’s normal, we are eight riders with the same possibility to fight for top positions. This is the strategy from Ducati and from the start I accepted it.
“Today, the only way possible to get through on Enea was to push him out. I didn’t want to. It’s not the way I like to race.”
Source: Autosport