Bastianini “struggling to overtake like last year, lacking front-end feeling"

A four-time MotoGP race winner in 2022, Bastianini was only bettered by current world champion Francesco Bagnaia in terms of wins. 

But after suffering a broken right shoulder at the 2023 season-opener when Luca Marini took out the factory Ducati rider in the sprint race, Bastianini has been trying to play catch up ever since.

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The former Gresini rider managed to complete both the Italian and German Grand Prix weekends, finishing in the points both times. However, the former Moto2 champion is looking to improve his results now that his fitness has improved. 

Eighth at Sachsenring, Bastianini said this when speaking to GPOne.com: "Physically I feel better. I resisted well but I still have to take the step to get to where I was before the incident. 

"However, I feel much better physically and I finished quite well at the end of the race, without being exhausted. 

"I was hoping it would go a little better at the start, but I got bottled in a little bit and I wasn’t able to get back up the field. 

"But in the end it went pretty well. The second half of the race went like I expected."

Although Bastianini was unable to show the same type of pace as the leading Ducatis, the Italian came out on top when fighting the likes of Marc Marquez in the Sprint, and Fabio Quartararo during the main race.

Clear signs that the Ducati rider is getting back to his best, Bastianini is still searching for more front-end feeling in order to repeat his results of 2022.

"I still don’t have what allows you to do something extra in the race," said Bastianini. "In the race I saw that I was struggling to overtake. 

"Last year, when I was determined to overtake, it was quite easy. But here, every time I tried to overtake they immediately crossed me and I could not close off the corner. 

"I’m still lacking the feeling on the front that I had last year."