MotoGP | Bastianini: “Finishing in Q1 by 10 thousandths pisses us off, but we’ll get through”

10 thousandths are very few, but sometimes they can be enough to change the face of a day. In the case of Enea Bastianini at Le Mans they weigh a lot, because it is the margin by which the Ducati rider remained out of Q2 at the end of the day on Friday. A shame for the Rimini driver, who had shown an enviable pace, but then made a mistake when it was time to do the time attack, sliding at turn 7.

An error that arose earlier, due to a wrong strategy with the front tyre, which forced him to mount the soft when it was time to chase the time, thus losing stability when braking. A lightness that he paid dearly for, because tomorrow it will force him to face a Q1 that doesn’t promise to be easy, given that besides him there are other heavy names such as Marc Marquez and Brad Binder.

“It’s a shame. Let’s say that I didn’t feel good with the media in front, so I had to remove it immediately. I tried hard to see if things were better, but at that point we didn’t have the time attack because we hadn’t warmed up another one. So I had to do it with the soft and it was more difficult than expected”, explained Bastianini, who consoled himself with what he showed in terms of race pace.

“I’m happy with the pace. Even though I had a better feeling in the morning, I was always in the top five in the afternoon too. We’re always fast and with each lap I gained a little more confidence, so in general I can be happy with the day, but being outside of 10 thousandths it’s a bit pissing off”, he added.

When asked if the crash was to be attributed to the soft front tyre, he replied: “In the end it wasn’t too bad, but let’s say that compared to the hard it offers less braking support, so you’re more at the limit. Certainly with the hard it would be been different, but with ifs and buts we do little.”

Even if there will be tough opponents in Q1, “Beast” seems convinced that all is not lost, on the contrary: “It will be intense. It is certainly always better to enter Q2 on Friday, but we don’t lack speed, so let’s try to make everything go according to the plans and I believe we will be able to pass.”

Also because the other big names continue to indicate him as one of the favorites for victory, even if it will be necessary to straighten out the situation that was created today: “Obviously the starting position matters, so we absolutely have to start from the front. Today we took a little ‘ in difficulty, but if we are good at qualifying tomorrow, I think we can compete in the race.”