MotoGP | Bastianini: “Good sprint, but I was too excited in Turn 2”

In a weekend that started badly, or at least far from the qualities that had led him to dominate the one at Silverstone, Enea Bastianini managed to patch things up by finishing Saturday’s Sprint at the Red Bull Ring with a fourth place that limited the damage and the points lost by Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, tied at the top of the MotoGP Riders’ World Championship.

The Romagna rider from the official Ducati team knew he had to start in the best possible way to have championship ambitions, but qualifying saw him start from the third row, in seventh position. All lost? Not in your dreams. Enea got off to a very good start, making perfect use of the clutch release and the characteristics of the Desmosedici GP 2024.

Unfortunately, however, after turn 1 Enea ruined all the good work done since the start by arriving too fast at turn 2. The braking was not adequate for the speed of the bike, so the rider from Rimini found himself having to go long, throwing away all the good work done up to that point.

“I started well. I was full of energy, I arrived too charged and aggressive in Turn 2. I struggled to stop the bike, I lost the rear a bit and went wide, losing a lot of positions”, admitted Bastianini in the debrief at the end of the Sprint of Austria.

“I can also say that this was part of the process, but tomorrow I really need to start in a different way. I have to do something different. I’m happy with today’s race because compared to yesterday I improved. I went back to my base set up after trying many solutions, but none of them were the right way to go. In the end the race went better than expected. I only made one mistake, the one in turn 2 at the beginning, then it went well. I will have to do a good warm up tomorrow morning to be ready for the race”.

Bastianini also gave a good overview of where Bagnaia, on the same bike, is making the difference compared to him, as he did with Jorge Martin, who is very strong in the left-hand corners that make up part of the third sector of the Red Bull Ring.

“Every time I have more locking than Pecco. And on this track even more, because here you brake hard. I tried to change the set-up a bit just to avoid locking the tire. But I think that comparing me and Pecco, the biggest difference is in braking. While comparing me to Jorge, in sector 3 he is very strong in the two left-hand corners. I have to try to find a good compromise. Today I didn’t feel any big locking, but tomorrow we will have to try to make a further step forward”.