Enea Bastianini "half happy", "it wasn’t the right choice"

After qualifying on the front row, Enea Bastianini was unable to stay in the top three in either the Qatar Sprint or  MotoGP race.

Fifth in the shorter Saturday contest, the Italian then struggled with braking during the grand prix and felt he was too careful with his tyres.

Race winning team-mate Francesco Bagnaia chose the opposite approach, attacking hard to reach the front before successfully managing the gap to his rivals.

Nonetheless, Bastianini was able to pick off rookie Pedro Acosta (GASGAS) and then Gresini’s Alex Marquez in the closing laps for sixth at the flag, 5.153s behind Bagnaia.

“We’re half happy,” Bastianini said. “It was a difficult race: I couldn’t get the bike stopped the way I wanted and that prevented me from pushing hard.

“Then I tried to save the tyres for the final laps, but in hindsight it wasn’t the right choice, as the drop was a lot lower compared to yesterday.

“It was better to try to do the maximum from the start, and I'm not happy about this.

“In general, this fifth place can be a good point to start, but my target was to do something better.

“Our expectations were higher, but we’ll try to do better in the next race; once we get to Portimao, we will have a clearer picture on how to make a further step forward.”

Bastianini, winner of the 2022 Qatar opener, left Lusail fifth in the world championship.

Most importantly, he also avoided the injury nightmare of Portimao 2023, when he was taken down in the season opener and fractured his shoulder.