Enea Bastianini explains absence of late race pace in Austrian MotoGP

Enea Bastianini took a third place in the Austrian MotoGP, something he confessed to being happy about, despite clearly lacking pace compared to Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin.

Bastianini started seventh, but was third by the end of the first sector on lap one. After his tyre saving excellence in Silverstone, it was expected that such a strong starting position would put Bastianini in the perfect place to take advantage of his late race pace in the closing stages of the Red Bull Ring encounter.

However, that’s not how it turned out, and Bastianini finished seven seconds behind his victorious teammate, Bagnaia.

Bastianini explained why the stop-start Red Bull Ring layout didn’t allow him to exploit his late race strength as he did in the more flowing Silverstone.

“This time, this moment didn’t arrive,” Bastianini said in the post-race press conferenc, “because this track is not like the usual tracks. It’s strange because we have to brake many times, and also a lot of braking straight.

“When you have to do one acceleration, you spin like the other riders, you can’t do anything to save a bit the tyre. I was only happy to be on the third place today.”

Bastianini had missed pace all weekend compared to Bagnaia and Martin, hence his seventh-place qualifying. As a result, his third place is seen by him as a positive.

“At the end, we have saved a bit the weekend because I have suffered a lot from Friday, a lot with the front, especially on entry,” he said. “Today for the race it was a bit better, also the start was not bad, I was in third place after the first corner. This has helped me a bit for the race.

“After [the start] my pace was not like Pecco and Jorge today, but after this difficult condition in that Grand Prix, we can be happy.”

Having been able to compete with Bagnaia and Martin in Silverstone, and indeed beat them, why was he so far away from them in Austria? What were Bagnaia and Martin doing better than him?

“I think it’s difficult to say this, because these two riders are so different, their riding styles are so different,” Bastianini said.

“Pecco, sometimes has an incredible braking point, sometimes he can brake much later than the other riders of Ducati.

“Jorge is incredible sometimes in the middle of the corner, he has a lot of speed and sometimes with less angle, it’s strange.

“I think sometimes I have a mix of this and I can fight with these two riders, but sometimes I have suffered, like today, and I’m a bit behind.”