MotoGP | Bastianini: “Today we go out with our heads held high, it doesn’t matter what happens”

It was an enlightened Enea Bastianini who showed off his best performance of the season at Mugello. In an Italian Grand Prix that was less spectacular than usual in terms of entertainment, the Ducati rider from Romagna took care of providing excitement at the end, overtaking first Marc Marquez and then Jorge Martin. The latter seemed firmly in second position and no one would have ever imagined that the official Ducati rider could recover so many meters in just a few corners.

“I saw that the race was a bit boring, so I had to do something!”, joked Bastianini speaking to the media at the end of the race. “Jokes aside, today it was difficult to do more, because as soon as you try something more it’s easy to make mistakes and if you miss a corner, you miss the whole track. When I caught up with Martin and was able to overtake him, I started to make some small mistakes and at a certain point I got a little slow. When Marc passed me, I found myself. So I closed my eyes and pushed harder. the bike responded really well and it was possible to do what I did. On the last lap I saw Jorge who wasn’t very close, but he could have been my target. So, at the last corner I tried to give it my all and halfway through the corner I had more speed. I’m happy for myself but also for my boys, because the bike worked very well.”

Bastianini, who started from fifth place, livened up the Sunday race by engaging in a duel with Marquez. There were few quick calls, because a decisive but clean overtaking allowed the Ducati rider to take third position. Second place seemed like a mirage, because there were only a few kilometers to go until the finish line, but Martin’s silhouette became clearer and closer, until he was within range in the final metres: “Favorite overtaking? Definitely the one about Martin, because it was the one for second position! On the last lap I thought about giving it a go, but I was eight tenths behind! I did a very fast lap and managed to catch him in the last corners. It was good, but the one on Marquez was also good!”

“I wasn’t afraid to lay down, even though I was faster than I was at the start, I had everything under control. I could dance with the motorbike, I really liked it. Jorge wasn’t in the budget until halfway through the lap. From the middle of the last lap onwards I realized that he could be caught up and at the last corner I overtook him. Having been so fast here at Mugello gives me a lot of energy because I’ve never had a podium, but I felt it was within my reach. I think this year we are much more consistent than in past years. I think I don’t have everything under control, I’m missing something but it gives me hope. If we manage to be second when everything isn’t 100%, it’s a good sign,” Enea said.

There has been a lot of talk about Bastianini in recent weeks, and not because of the podiums he achieved. Bestia is one of the pawns on the transfer market and his place is in the balance to make room for Jorge Martin or Mar Marquez. In this situation, it is certainly not easy to face the weekends: “In these moments you have to be strong, because it is not easy to always manage everything 100% in the right way. The team and I made mistakes that we could have avoided, but it’s important to come out of them with our heads held high. Today we did it and so I don’t care what happens, I care what happened today. It’s not right to talk about the team’s mistakes or mine. I think anyone who is paying attention has seen them. We could only have achieved more. Even luck wasn’t on our side, but today is truly a beautiful day. Usually I’m not happy with a second position, but today it’s different.”