The Return of the “Beast”
With the first half of the championship behind him, Enea Bastianini showed up at Silverstone in the best possible shape and the results were there to see. The rider from Romagna achieved the third fastest time in qualifying at Silverstone, before winning both the Sprint and the GP. His Sunday performance was on the up and he said: “It was a difficult race, because I made a few mistakes in the first two laps and found myself a bit behind. After that, however, I found the right confidence to be able to get back among the leaders: first I caught up with Aleix (Espargaró), who wasn’t easy to overtake, and then Pecco. In the last four-five laps, Jorge (Martin) was pushing really hard and it wasn’t easy to close the gap. To get back on the top step of the podium in the Sunday race is fantastic”.
The work behind these successes
This is only his second win in red, after the one in Malaysia last year and Bastanini confided a behind the scenes: “I’m working on myself: I analyzed the first part of the championship, the positives and the negatives. I’ve generally had a good pace in the race so far, but obviously the performance in qualifying has often penalized me. I’ve tried to work on the psychological part so as not to be unprepared in this moment and I hope to be able to continue like this”.
The difficulties experienced by Pecco
It was a more shadowy weekend for his teammate Francesco Bagnaia, who crashed in the Sprint on Sunday but finished third after dominating the first half of the race. The Piedmontese said: “I am satisfied because, after the crash on Saturday, it was important to finish the race. It wasn’t easy: I got in front and tried to manage the race as much as possible but unfortunately, not being able to push so much with the medium front tyre, I had to push a bit more with the rear tyre to get the bike to turn. So I found myself in a bit of difficulty in the final stages. When Martín passed me, I tried to stay behind him but I almost lost the front at turn seven and at that moment I thought that, after yesterday’s crash, it was better to think about finishing the race. It’s clear that Enea, when he starts strong from Friday, becomes really difficult to beat, as he is notoriously very good in the final stages of the race – and he proved it again today”.
MotoGP 2024 rider standings
