MotoGP News: Enea Bastianini Unhappy After Malaysian Grand Prix

Saajan Jogia | Nov 4, 2024

Apr 14, 2024; Austin, TX, USA; Enea Bastianini (23) of Italy and Ducati Lenovo Team before the MotoGP Grand Prix of The Americas at Circuit of The Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Enea Bastianini voiced frustration over the pace of Ducati's GP24 MotoGP bike during the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang. Despite his concerns, he acknowledged some luck, as Marc Marquez’s crash allowed him to claim third place on the podium.

After remounting from his crash, Marquez managed to finish 12th, leaving Bastianini just one point behind him in their tight contest for third in the riders' championship. Despite qualifying sixth, Bastianini could only secure a distant third place in the race, finishing 10.484 seconds behind his teammate and race winner Francesco Bagnaia (Pecco), highlighting a significant performance gap between them despite sharing the same bike.

Bastianini admitted to "fighting a lot with the bike," as he struggled to maintain mid-corner speed. Speaking to the media, he said:

“No, I’m not very satisfied because I fought a lot with the bike all the weekend.

“We started on a good foot, but after we lost something. I was confident to resolve that problem for this morning, but nothing changed.

“I’m lucky today in the race because Marquez crashed, but for the rest nothing is positive.”

Revealing that he remains clueless about what was causing the drop in pace, an angry Bastianini added:

“I don’t know.

“I was slow in the middle of the corner, I was without corner speed because every time I make something different, if I enter much faster compared to the lap before, it was impossible.

“Today it was impossible for me to give 100%. I am angry.”

With the venue for the season finale still unconfirmed, Bastianini joked that maybe reigning champion Bagnaia could help him win over Marquez and vice versa. The Italian rider acknowledged it would be a tight championship battle between his teammate and championship leader Jorge Martin, who leads by 24 points. Bastianini added:

“I think I can help Pecco, and Pecco - if he wants - he can help me.

“It depends on the starting grid, it depends on the weekend, if Jorge does good stuff that weekend.

“Pecco is very competitive the same, he did a fantastic job. I think 24 points for him will be not easy to close, and Jorge has to do a big mistake.

“But I think to be honest it will be hard, but probably it’s more simple for me because I have only one point to close the gap [to Marquez].” 

The Malaysian MotoGP round saw a tight battle between Bagnaia and Martin, eventually leading the former to secure victory by 3.141 seconds over Martin.