MotoGP | Bastianini: “Pecco and Martin are more effective when traveling”

A top 5 is not a result to throw away, but Enea Bastianini cannot be completely satisfied with his first outing of the season. The front row conquered in the Qatar Grand Prix had deluded the Ducati rider into thinking he had what it took to at least attack the podium, but the two races in Lusail showed a very different reality.

The Rimini driver suffered chattering problems at the rear of his Desmosedici GP and was unable to be as incisive as the other two “ready” riders who have the GP24 like him (Franco Morbidelli missed all the tests due to injury), given that Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia shared the successes up for grabs in Lusail. However, “Beast” did not hide the fact that his strategy in the long race was also wrong, especially in the early stages of the race.

“The race was nothing special. At the beginning I tried to manage to try to be fast in the final part of the race, but it wasn't the right choice, because the drop in the tires was less than in the Sprint. It would have been better to try to give my best from the start, so I'm not happy. In general, however, this fifth place is a good way to start the season, even if my goal was something better”, explained Bastianini, who left Qatar in sixth place in the World Championship, 16 points behind leader Bagnaia.

If his teammate managed to improve the setting between Saturday and Sunday, Enea continued to suffer from the annoying vibrations at the rear that have tormented him since the tests: “We probably didn't work in the correct direction, because the problem was more or less same. We need to understand why I was faster in the tests than in today's race, but we have a lot of data to analyze in view of Portimao. But I think we can only be 50% satisfied.”

Bastianini seems to have quite clear ideas on what his boxmate and “Martinator” can currently do better than him on the GP24: “Let's say that in the driving phase they manage to be more effective and I think I understand what the motivation is From Friday the bike seemed a little different to me compared to the test, a little more 'braked', with more engine brake. I think one of the possible reasons is that, so we'll try to reduce it from the next race.”

Finally, the Qatari weekend seems to have said that the competition is not as far away as the tests would have led us to believe: “Ducati is now the point of reference for everyone, but I believe that KTM is very close, because Binder finished second in both in the Sprint and in the long race. I believe that together with Aprilia they will be our rivals for this year.”