Can Enea Bastianini take the #1 plate to Tech3 KTM next year?

Before Silverstone, the odds of Ducati running the reigning MotoGP champion next season were stacked in their favour.

Not only was reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia back on top of the standings, but future team-mate Marc Marquez was holding third behind Jorge Martin, who is switching to Aprilia in 2025.

But the odds swung again at Silverstone where a perfect double for Bagnaia’s outgoing team-mate Enea Bastianini moved the future Tech3 KTM rider ahead of Marquez, while Martin also retook the title lead from Pecco.

“As Marc Marquez said after the race, on his day Bastianini is unbeatable. And this was definitely one of his days or indeed his weekend, with the Sprint win as well,” said Crash.net MotoGP editor Pete McLaren.

“’The Beast’ is now third in the championship, he took that over from Marquez on Saturday, and there are a lot of riders here [at Silverstone] saying he's one to watch for the title.”

Podcast host Jordan Moreland responded: “Bastianini’s only 49 points back and anything really is possible. He’s out of a ride at Ducati and joining KTM next year so there’s less incentive for him to play the team game.”

“Ducati hired him two years ago because they knew his talent," McLaren replied. "Unfortunately, last year he was injured and we never really got to see the real Bastianini and what he could do on a factory bike. And then the rider decisions were made pretty early for next year and beyond.

“We’ve been speculating, ‘What if this year's world champion leaves Ducati for another team?’ but that was more about Jorge Martin joining Aprilia. Now there’s a double risk of that happening, you might say, with Bastianini closing in.

“Meanwhile Bagnaia fell in the Sprint and then saw his run of four grands prix wins in a row end on Sunday, so it's all to play for.”

Moreland said: “Jorge Martin is now back in the lead of the World Championship. It was the perfect response after what happened to him before the summer break?”

“That's right. There were a lot of questions on Thursday about ‘Do you know what went wrong at Sachsenring? Are you sure it won't happen again?’ Martin didn’t want to go too deeply into it but hinted that they might have found something or some reason.

“Leading Friday practice I think was probably the foundation for his strong weekend, getting straight back to the top of the timesheets. Okay, he didn't beat Bastianini, but he took points off Pecco in both races and regains the title lead.

“He's done what he needed to do, which is fight back immediately after a big mistake.”

“Talking of mistakes, Bagnaia fell in the Sprint and then took third place in the Grand Prix,” said Moreland. “I'd say it was a good salvage job.”

“We’ve seen it before haven’t we, where Pecco makes a mistake in the Sprint and then gets big points on the Sunday. He's kind of done that again. It was not a great weekend for him but he put the bike on the podium in the main race and limited the damage on a day when he just didn't have the pace to stay with Bastianini and Martin.

“You've got to make the best of those kind of days and, although it got close with Marquez catching him at the end, he took a rostrum. But that winning run of Sundays is now over and it looks like there are multiple threats for the title, not just Martin but the guy next to him in the Ducati pits.”

Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro was the only non-Ducati in the top eight on Sunday.

Team-mate Maverick Vinales remains the leading non-Ducati in the world championship standing, 111 points from Martin, in fifth place.