“He’s incredible at doing it”: Enea Bastianini’s key strength revealed

The 2024 MotoGP title fight was essentially between three riders since the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, when Jorge Martin beat Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia. Those were the three, with Bagnaia and Martin holding a slight advantage over Marquez, both in points and machinery.

Over the races between the French Grand Prix and the summer break, those three riders took nine of the 12 available podium positions, with Bagnaia taking all four race wins in that period to gradually whittle down Martin’s points lead, and eventually to lead the championship after the German Grand Prix.

But, after the summer break, it was the rider who finished fourth at Le Mans who fired himself into contention, passing Marquez for third in the riders’ standings after he took a maiden double victory in Britain: Enea Bastianini.

The Italian had never even stood on a MotoGP Sprint podium before the Silverstone sprint race on 3 August, but he took victory there, and then backed that up with a win on Sunday.

Although the Sprint win served more to prove Bastianini’s top-end speed, it was his race pace in the Sunday Grand Prix which really stood out.

Although Bastianini led the first lap, he was fourth by the end of lap three, and didn’t start moving forwards again until around half-distance. He passed Aleix Espargaro for third on lap 11, then his Ducati Lenovo teammate Francesco Bagnaia for second on lap 14. By the penultimate lap he was on the rear wheel of Jorge Martin for the lead, pressuring Martin into going defensive and then making a mistake at turn three on the penultimate lap.

Leading for almost the final two laps in entirety, Bastianini eventually won by almost 1.9 seconds over Martin.

The Italian’s pace was relentlessly consistent — not once, other than on laps one and two, did he lap outside the 1:59s, neither a 1:58 nor a 2:00 was posted by Bastianini throughout the 18 laps from lap three to the final lap, lap 20.

For the most part, he was in the low-1:59s, with a 1:59.579  coming on lap 10 as he began to be held up by Espargaro, before returning to a 59.297 on lap 11 as he made his pass. Then, two 59.6s on laps 13 and 14 as he caught and passed the fading Bagnaia, who ended up third. A 59.526 was only 0.1 seconds faster than Martin on lap 16, and that could have signalled the end of Bastianini’s forward charge, but he followed it up with a 59.172 that brought him onto Martin’s wheel. Even his final lap was a 1:59.946, as Martin slipped into the 2:01s.

Martin was the only other rider in the 1:59s for even remotely as long as Bastianini, with his first 2:00 coming on lap 19, when he made the mistake to let Bastianini through. Bagnaia, on the other hand, was almost exclusively outside the 1:59s from lap 13, with only a 1:59.714 on lap 15 breaking the pattern for the reigning champion. Marc Marquez, too, didn’t post a 1;59 after lap 13, and Aleix Espargaro — who posted two 1:58s in the opening six laps — set his final 1:59 of the race on lap 12.

All of the riders were on the same medium-compound front, medium-compound rear combination, with the exception of Aleix Espargaro, who chose the hard-compound front tyre having rode it to third in Saturday’s Sprint.

So, if all the riders were on the same rear tyre, why was Bastianini able to find so much advantage late in the race, having given up relatively little at the start?

Speaking after the race on TNT Sports, Sylvain Guintoli said it was down to Bastianini’s patience, and his increasing comfort and confidence with his Desmosedici package as the race wore on and the fuel load dropped.

“He just let the race come to him,” Guintoli said. “It looked like he was really struggling at the start of the race with the full fuel tank, but when that bike became a little bit lighter, that’s when he was really able to generate the lap time and make the difference.”

As well as the reducing fuel load, Guintoli said that Bastianini was getting better as the tyre wore.

“With the used tyre and the low fuel load, [Bastianini] was so quick and so efficient, there was absolutely no way he could get back at him,” the 2014 World Superbike Champion added regarding Bastianini’s race-winning move on Martin.

2003 World Superbike Champion, Neil Hodgson, said that it was Bastianini’s riding style that made him so effective in the latter stages of the race.

“He’s got that special ability to save his tyre. We see all the riders [hanging] off the bike, picking the bike up, but he does it [more] than the other riders. What he does, is he does it early on in the races, when [he has] grip.

“As soon as he gets to the exit of the corner, he picks the bike up and takes it off the edge of the tyre.” Hodgson explained that, because the other riders are not picking their bike up with the same exaggeration as Bastianini, they’re burning through the edge grip of the tyre, that Hodgson described as “the most important bit of the tyre”.

Because of Bastianini’s style, Hodgson said, “You get to the three-quarter point of the race, [when] everyone’s edge grip is going, and it’s like he has 10 per cent, 20 per cent more, and he can [keep doing] consistent lap times right to the end of the race. He’s incredible at doing it, he’s the best in the world.”

Hodgson also complimented Bastianini’s race craft, having forced both Bagnaia and Martin into mistakes to allow him to make his way through, rather than forcing a pass.

The Italian, Hodgson said, “doesn’t force moves. Think about how many times we’ve seen Bastianini put a real forceful move — he’s not that sort of rider, he just waits and waits because he knows eventually [his] chance will come.”

As a result of Bastianini’s combination of tyre-friendly riding technique and calm race craft, Hodgson concluded that “Genuinely, Bastianini is in this championship battle.”

Now a proven winner in Sprints, Bastianini now seems a legitimate contender to score major points on every weekend, with 370 points still available and a current deficit to Martin (who regained the championship lead after he beat Bagnaia in the British Grand Prix, and the Italian didn’t score in the Sprint) of 49 points.

“[Bastianini] will know exactly how many points behind he is in the championship, and he will fancy himself,” Hodgson said. “He’s in the mix.”