Rossi’s private chat with Ducati: “Pecco gets over-confident, screws it up”

Bagnaia won the Spanish MotoGP, in front of his mentor who had won six premier class races at Jerez, to claim the lead in the MotoGP standings.

Rossi celebrated in the Ducati garage - a place where he has had little reason to celebrate in the past - with Bagnaia and some familiar faces.

• Valentino Rossi reveals words of advice to Bagnaia which led to Jerez glory

“Very well done,” Rossi said as he hugged Bagnaia. “You were the one who had tyre left at the end. You were perfect.”

Bagnaia replied: “I was careful.”

Rossi then told Ducati engineers: “I told him that it’s when he doesn’t start off well.

“When he’s bad in the practices, he struggles, Q1…”

Christian Gabbarini, Bagnaia’s crew chief, added: “If he starts the weekend off well, then he gets distracted.”

And Rossi emphatically agreed: “Exactly, that’s the problem! If he starts strong, gets pole, dominates, all that stuff, then his cockiness gets the better of him.

“He gets over-confident then he screws it up.

“If he starts far off, then he’s perfect.”

• Jorge Lorenzo’s first words on the success of Valentino Rossi’s Mooney VR46

Rossi then said to Bagnaia: “Who knows, if they hadn’t given you that penalty, maybe…”

Bagnaia joked: “I would have crashed!”

Rossi: “You would have been ahead of everyone, alone, wondering what to do!”

The seven-time MotoGP champion and all-time legend was in Jerez to oversee his Mooney VR46 team.

Marco Bezzecchi had been an early leader in the standings but lost out to Bagnaia, a fellow graduate of the VR46 Academy, in Jerez.

Rossi is also facing a long-term decision of whether to keep his Mooney VR46 team using Ducati bikes or switch to Yamaha, the team where he made his name, and where he has recently signed an unrelated ambassadorial deal.