Bastianini: "A pity, we were to fight for the podium or even victory"

August 22, 2022

Winner of three races this season, in Qatar, Austin and Le Mans, Enea Bastianini fell to sixth place overall (118 points) after another zero at the Austrian Grand Prix, where he had to retire after breaking the front tire of your Ducati and lose tire pressure.

Bastianini, who in the first seven races of the season accumulated 94 points, adding in six of them (only one zero, in Portimao), has only been able to add 24 more in the last six grand prix, in which he has conceded three more zeros .

After his great comeback at Silverstone, where he reached fourth place on the last lap, the Italian from Gresini Racing seemed to confirm that he had returned to his best version by reaching pole position at Spielberg, the first for him in the premier class, a first position on the grid that he had not achieved since his time in Moto3, back in 2018.

But starting first did not bring much luck to the 2020 Moto2 world champion, as soon as the traffic light went off he was overtaken by Pecco Bagnaia, he turned three laps in second place, in the fourth step across the finish line he had already been overtaken by Jack Miller and Jorge Martín , and on the sixth lap he had a tire against the curb of the circuit that forced him to retire before finishing the seventh lap, which meant the fourth zero of the course.

“It’s a real shame because we had a good pace and I’m sure we could have fought for the podium or even for the victory”, lamented the man from Gresini at the end of the race.

“Unfortunately between turn 9 and 10 I lost the rear, my front tire slipped, I hit the curb and broke the rim. That’s why I lost pressure in the front tire and had to retire”, he explained. “Anyway, we have to look at the glass as half full, because we’ve had a very good weekend”, Enea tried to be positive.

It was undoubtedly an episode of bad luck, rarely do you see a broken tire in a race.

“It’s the first time it’s happened to me. When I did turn 10 it seemed like nothing had happened, then in the next corner I saw that the front end was moving a lot. In turns two and three the situation got even worse and then in the turn four I went straight because I couldn’t brake”.

Bastianini aspires to become a Ducati official team rider next season, alongside Bagnaia, a seat for which Martín is also fighting. Since the factory communicated to both that they were the ‘finalists’ for the place and that the decision was going to be at the end of August, which happened in the Italian Grand Prix, the Spaniard has accumulated 59 points, adding in all the races, for only 24 of the Italian. However, the balance of three Enea victories may end up tipping the scales.

The competition between the two to go to the official team has been reflected on the track, both at Silverstone, where the Italian passed the Spaniard on the last lap, and in Austria, where Martín overtook him on the fourth lap.

“I have fought for quite some time with Jorge, who has been very competitive today and he has been quite aggressive with me, but that is normal. It was a racing fight and I don’t think it will affect our future as everyone may think. It is always nice fight with him, although it would have been better to do it at the end of the race, and not in the first laps”, settled the boy from Rimini.

Enea Bastianini and Jorge Martín fight for position in the first laps of Austria