Enea Bastianini: “I saw the message on the dashboard so I had to kill the bike!”

Similar to Marco Bezzecchi, who suffered an apparent engine issue with his GP23, the factory Ducati rider’s session was halted at the start of practice in the afternoon, but he stressed that he didn’t lose much time and was able to go through his normal practice programme despite the issue.

He told media including Crash.net at Silverstone: “To be back riding in MotoGP is always so nice and well… This afternoon, I don’t know what happened with my first bike. “But I didn’t lose much time and it was possible to do the work, like normal.”

Bastianini mentioned the importance of being able to try the hard front in a time attack tomorrow, before qualifying. He said: “The time attack has been not too bad, but we’ve to improve a little bit for tomorrow, as today I didn’t try the hard tyre on the front, so this will be important to try because if the conditions are similar to today, it’ll be better.”

However the Italian admitted he doesn’t know how his data/sectors compare with his teammate Pecco Bagnaia. “I don’t have an idea yet, because I haven’t checked the data and sector times - so I have to study! 

This morning I only seen one (sector) and the critical one was the third sector,” Bastianini said. “But now after the second session, I am the second fastest rider through there, so that was much better." 

“I think I can do much better in the first sector, because I am not really fast between the end of the third/fourth corner, so this is really dependent on the gearing. But I am fast and happy about the bike.” 

When asked about the issue with his bike, Bastianini said he didn’t know the root of the issue as the team were still investigating.
“No, I don’t know anything,” he admitted.

 “The bike just switched off and I saw the message on the dashboard to stop, so I had to kill the bike!”