MotoGP | Bastianini: “I knew I wouldn’t fight with Pecco and Martin”

The Austrian Grand Prix will not be counted among the most entertaining of the season in terms of spectacle and brawl on the track: Pecco Bagnaia took off by signing another double and beating Jorge Martin who still made the difference on the rest of the group. The “first of the humans” was Enea Bastianini, third at the checkered flag. The Ducati rider from Romagna achieved the best possible result in a MotoGP that today exalted more than usual the superiority of the reigning champion and the Pramac standard-bearer.

At the end of the race, Bastianini acknowledged that he would not have the pace of the top two, despite having straightened out a weekend that started off on an uphill slope: “Honestly, I knew I didn’t have the same pace as Pecco and Jorge. I struggled all weekend, I never felt comfortable even today in the race, even though my pace had improved. But it’s one of those weekends that you have to try to bring home by trying to get the best possible result. It’s still a good third place, but I knew from the first lap that I couldn’t fight with them.”

At the Red Bull Ring, the Ducati rider did not start the weekend in the best way, with no feeling and some difficulty managing the tyre. So today’s result takes on even more value: “It went better than I imagined because I had zero feeling. I didn’t feel the front, the only time I felt better was when I put the hard tyre on the front, but in the race it was too risky because the temperature was lower than on other days. I only tried it on Friday, but it was a new tyre for everyone and there are few corners on the left. It would have been very, very risky”.

“Once upon a time we would have had a much harder time straightening out a weekend, but today we got on the podium,” he explained Beast. “We kept calm, we tried to understand what to fix, knowing that maybe we wouldn’t get to the top, but at least where I am now. It was a job we did slowly, without upsetting the bike but making small changes, always knowing what I have under my ass”.

At the end of the Austrian Grand Prix, Bastianini maintains third place, although 61 points behind Bagnaia and 56 behind Martin. He is mathematically in contention for the title, but he feels he still doesn’t have that little something extra that will allow him to fight with the two of them: “I’m still living it well, I know I’m still missing something. We still have to do a bit of work to always be there, without major difficulties. Sometimes we arrive on some tracks and we’re 12th. This isn’t good if we want to fight for the title, so we have to work on this thing.”

“How do I see the fight between Pecco and Jorge? It seems very close, one day it seems like one is more, one day more than the other. I can be faster at times, but it’s something that only develops sometimes. I have to try to exploit my strong points and attack when I can. In races like today, however, I have to be more conservative and take it home,” explained Bastianini, who is now already looking ahead to the next event in Spain: “Aragon is a track that I really like, I’ve always done quite well. I hope to be able to do it this year too, but then there will be two races in Misano that will definitely be tough because it’s always a bit difficult there. All Italians want to do the best they can, we’re all playing at home. But then there will be Jorge, who was very fast last year.”