Today is a day that Enea Bastianini will hardly forget. The rider from Rimini had already won in his Misano in Moto3 and Moto2, but he still lacked the seal in MotoGP. And it is a seal that will remain in history, given that it is the 100th success of Ducati in the premier class and that it also earned the mathematical conquest of the Constructors’ title for the Borgo Panigale company.
“It’s definitely leaving a mark on Ducati, because I’m racing for all the guys on my team, who are working hard. Even though I’m racing first and foremost for myself and my family. Given how the weekend went, it was positive and always improving. And this morning, in fact, I started to smell the victory,” Bastianini said of this milestone when he stopped to talk to Italian journalists immediately after the press conference.
From an emotional point of view, however, “Bestia” seems to feel the home victory more: “It’s definitely more special and it was beautiful to see the crowd shouting my name. I think it was a great day, even if at the moment I’m not enjoying it that much (laughs, pointing to the journalists). Then tomorrow I leave immediately for Indonesia, so when I win there’s always something that gets us back on the bike”.
However, it was also a particularly controversial victory, because the last-lap overtaking of Jorge Martin generated some controversy, given that his entry into turn 4 forced the Prima Pramac Racing rider to go off the track. An attack that replicated the one he had failed to achieve against Pecco Bagnaia in 2022.
“I saw that more or less sectors 1 and 2 were the only points where I could attack Jorge, because in the exit of turn 10, in acceleration, he was really taking away a lot of meters from me and I couldn’t do anything about it. The attack was either there or there. I also thought about the attack in 2022, which didn’t work out because I went long. So this lap I tried to be more decisive, even if I know that there are different points of view on this situation, but in my opinion he threw himself inside when he heard the noise of my bike and left me no room to maneuver”.
According to Martin, his maneuver should have been punished and Marc Marquez also said that perhaps they should have forced him to give back the position. When told, Enea did not seem surprised, but also pointed out that Jorge had also made a maneuver that was not particularly clean a few laps earlier, closing his line on the straight that leads to turn 8.
“It surprises me until the middle. Only Jorge and I know how it went: he heard the noise of my bike and closed the line, the same thing he did exiting the 6th a few laps before, when I wanted to enter the Quercia. He closed and I had to brake: if we have to talk about moves at the limit, his was no exception”.
He then returned to the moment he is experiencing in these last races of his adventure in Ducati: “I like how we are making things work and I am happy with the work that the team is doing, which is not underestimating anything and is doing 100% to put me in a position to win. It is a good condition and now the Asian tour begins, which I usually like a lot”.
Enea Bastianini, Ducati Team
Photo credit: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The points to recover on Martin are now 59, so theoretically he can continue to cultivate a world championship dream: “It’s okay to have it, because I’m a little closer than at the beginning of the weekend. But there are always a lot of points and this is not to be underestimated”.
And in this sense there is also the regret of a beginning that perhaps was not up to the level he has found now: “A little, yes, because at certain moments I could have done a little more, but now is not the time to look back”.
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