Enea Bastianini is back to being the “Beast” and now we can truly say it without hesitation. The Silverstone weekend seems to have finally given us back that rider who had bewitched us two years ago on the Ducati of Gresini Racing, but who then had not yet managed to show his full potential on the red Desmosedici GP of the official Borgo Panigale team.
After scoring his first win in a Sprint yesterday, the rider from Rimini today completed the British Grand Prix weekend with a beautiful one-two, winning thanks to his great ability in managing the tyres, which came out especially in the second part of the race.
Jorge Martin can also smile because, if it is true that the appointment with the return to victory is still postponed, the Prima Pramac Racing rider has managed to regain the world championship lead with a 3-point margin over a Pecco Bagnaia who was objectively below expectations today. But now we will also have to pay attention to Bastianini, because his gap has reduced to 49 points.
At the start, Bagnaia was the fastest, taking the lead of the race ahead of Martin, the Aprilia of poleman Aleix Espargaro and Bastianini himself, who in the early stages of the race gave the impression of being in a little more difficulty than the other riders in the leading group.
For about half the race, it seemed that everyone was pretty much in control, even if the first two had managed to open up a small gap. What changed things was the moment in which Enea managed to pass Espargaro during the tenth lap, because it was immediately clear that he had the potential to come back and this pushed Martin to attack Bagnaia, finding the gap to slip in at turn 3 during the following lap.
On lap 12 Martin made a small mistake at turn 3, but Bagnaia was unable to take advantage of it, proving that he was starting to struggle a little. Their crossing of lines, however, allowed Bastianini to catch up with them. However, to get the better of Pecco he had to wait for a slight closing of the front of his teammate and in the meantime “Martinator” had opened a gap of almost a second.
Bastianini didn’t give up though and tenth after tenth he began to close in on the rider from Madrid, arriving in his exhausts just when there were two laps left. And at that moment the Prima Pramac Racing rider made another mistake, going long at turn 2. The Romagnola therefore didn’t need to be asked twice to take command of the operations and then flew towards his sixth victory in the premier class, also because for Martin the second place is worth the +3 on a rather dull Bagnaia, but in the end third.
Behind them, as the laps went by, Aleix Espargaro’s Aprilia, which had the hard front tyre, gradually lost pace and in the final stages gave way to the other two Ducatis of Marc Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio, having to settle for sixth place behind five bikes of the rivals of the Borgo Panigale manufacturer. Marquez therefore managed to partially redeem yesterday’s zero, even if he never kept the pace of the best and now sees his gap in the World Championship rise to 62 points.
Di Giannantonio’s race was very good, because the Pertamina Enduro VR46 rider could have tried to catch Marc too if he hadn’t lost a lot of time in the battle with the other Marquez, his brother Alex, who ended up seventh. Once again, however, the Roman rider had the chance to confirm his maturation.
Despite a sore foot due to yesterday’s accident at the start, Marco Bezzecchi gritted his teeth and managed to bring his Ducati to the finish line in eighth place. And the Desmosedici GPs in the top 10 become eight, given that Franco Morbidelli placed tenth after serving a double long lap penalty for the crash of the Sprint with his compatriot.
Pedro Acosta then slipped in between them, being the first among the KTM riders. It should be noted, however, that Brad Binder took a big risk at the start, because his RC16 remained practically stationary in the second row, fortunately being avoided by the rest of the group.
As for the Japanese bikes, Fabio Quartararo placed his Yamaha in 11th place, while the best Honda was that of Johann Zarco in 14th position. Theoretically, a point was also taken home by Luca Marini with 15th place, but the HRC rider ended up under investigation for the value of the tire pressure, so he will most likely be penalized.
Finally, it is worth mentioning the unfortunate accident involving the two Trackhouse Racing riders on the first lap: Raul Fernandez lost the front at turn 6 and his Aprilia hit that of his teammate Miguel Oliveira. Fortunately, both of them escaped without any particular consequences.
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