Marc Marquez: Bastianini ‘unbeatable’ on his day, GP24s ‘super-fast’ at some tracks

Enea Bastianini’s first MotoGP ‘double’ of Sprint and Grand Prix victories at Silverstone also carried the factory Ducati rider past Marc Marquez for third in the world championship.

Bastianini is now 49-points from title leader Jorge Martin and 46 behind team-mate and reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia.

But with 370 points still up for grabs ‘The Beast’ has plenty of time to make it a three-way world championship battle and potentially take the #1 plate to Tech3 KTM next season.

Before the summer break, Marquez had already alluded to the growing threat from Bastianini, whose renowned tyre-saving ability then took him to a first MotoGP win since Sepang 2023 at Silverstone.

“His riding style is quite strange,” explained Marquez on Sunday evening at Silverstone. “In the beginning with a new tyre, he struggles a bit more than Pecco and Martin. But always with the used tyre, he's extremely fast because he's able to turn the bike with not a lot of [lean] angle.

“He's doing so well there and at the same time he's braking late and he picks up well the bike. In this race track, honestly speaking when I was behind him, he was riding super good. He never smoked the tyre. He was just efficient, just fast, but with not a lot of movement.

“So yeah, he made a massive difference. And as we’ve seen in the past, he's a rider that when he has his day, he is unbeatable.”

The big question in terms of the title is how many more of those days Bastianini will be able to deliver this season.

Unlike the title leaders, Bastianini has finished every race, although ignoring the long lap penalty in Catalunya - resulting in a big post-race time penalty that dropped him out of the points - could come back to haunt him.

Marquez: GP24s ‘super-fast’ at some tracks

Meanwhile, Marquez now needs to overturn a 13-point deficit to Bastianini if he is to finish in the title top three.

But the eight-time world champion, who takes over Bastianini’s factory ride next year, warned that at some tracks - like Silverstone - the GP24s have a clearer advantage over his GP23.

“For me, it's not about the rear tyre, it’s about the evolution of the bikes,” Marquez said of Sunday’s all-GP24 podium.

“Last year here my brother Alex and Fabio di Giannantonio, who started at the back, were the fastest guys on track and Aleix [Espargaro] won with Aprilia.

“Today I finished in front of Aleix and Aprilia [6th]. I finished in front of Diggia [5th]. And I finished in front of my brother Alex [7th].

“So [my] performance is there, but it looks like the ‘24 bikes in some racetracks are super-fast. Especially this one where you have long straights and with that [factory-spec] rear device, with more top speed, the difference is a bit bigger.

“But as we showed today, if we work in a good way - even if this weekend we were a bit delayed [behind with the set-up] - we can be on a good level to fight with them. But always on the limit.”

Pressed on the size of the performance gap to the GP24s, Marquez said:

“At the moment, on average, we are 4-5 seconds slower in the race. So we need to improve more than two or three tenths per lap if we want to fight with them.

“That is a lot. Sounds not so bad, but it is a lot!

“[Austria] will be difficult. But our target is that top four-five and - if we can - fight for the podium as we did in another races.”