MotoGP | Bastianini returns to winning ways and believes in it: “Everything is open, I won’t give up”

Everyone was expecting Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, but on the wheel of the Sprint at Silverstone the name of Enea Bastianini came out. The Ducati rider had a truly perfect race, managing to keep up with the infernal pace of “Martinator” in the first part, then attacking the rider from Madrid at the right time to take what is not only his first win of the season, but also his first on Saturday since the Sprint format was introduced. Indeed, his first podium on Saturday, but “Beast” was able to hit the big target right away.

“It was a great fight with Martin and we pushed to the limit. The pace was really crazy throughout the Sprint. It’s my first win of the year and I’m really happy. Also, Silverstone is one of my favourite tracks, so it’s really fantastic,” Bastianini said in parc fermé, before collecting his first medal.

Once he arrived at the microphones of Sky Sport MotoGP, he spoke in a little more detail about his race and the emotions of a return to victory that he had been waiting for since last year’s Malaysian Grand Prix, when however he had won the long race on Sunday.

“Since yesterday I’ve had a really good feeling with the bike, so I knew I would do well today. I wasn’t thinking about the victory, because Martin had an incredible pace this morning, but in the end some details made the difference in the Sprint. To win again is great, even if the real race is tomorrow, so you have to stay on top of things and try to do just as well. But I’ve been looking for it for a while this year, and the first podium in a Sprint is a victory, so it couldn’t have gone better.”

To hit the bigger target this year, he had been missing a more incisive qualifying performance. In fact, many times we had seen Enea be the protagonist of beautiful comebacks from the third and fourth row, even reaching the podium. It is no coincidence, therefore, that this time he was on the front row and the win came.

“Let’s say that starting in front is easier. When you start from behind, you suffer a lot with the front, because there are aerodynamics and there are also many other factors, so it’s not easy to recover. Today I had to take advantage of it, so I had to stay close to Jorge and try to pass him. It went well, now let’s hope to continue like this. We got through Saturday, let’s try to repeat ourselves tomorrow and then there are another ten races”.

Before saying goodbye, the rider from Rimini also revealed a small physical ailment, but not enough to prevent him from winning: “Especially in the first four or five laps, Jorge was really strong in the changes of direction. I wasn’t 100%, because this morning my arm was hurting a bit, so I wasn’t able to be perfect and sometimes I lost a little. Now the physiotherapist will have to do a good job for tomorrow, because we’ll have to do double the laps, so it will be more difficult”.

With today’s victory and the simultaneous retirement of Pecco Bagnaia, Bastianini has reduced his gap to 55 points over his teammate. For him, therefore, the dream of the world championship is still there and it is too early to give up: “Everything is open, I will not give up. I am here to try every race”.