Enea Bastianini rues “one of the last chances” in 2024 MotoGP title fight
Indonesian GP crash has all but ended Bastianini’s title hopes
Enea Bastianini says winning the Indonesian Grand Prix was his only goal and his crash out of third represented “one of the last chances” for his 2024 MotoGP title hopes.
The factory Ducati rider was one of the favourites to fight for victory in Sunday’s 27-lap grand prix at Mandalika, and looked in good shape to challenge Jorge Martin when he leaped into second at the start.
But Bastianini fell quickly out of the podium battle as he “suffered a lot” with his rear medium tyre, before rallying in the second half of the race to get back up to third and threaten a late victory charge.
However, he crashed at Turn 1 on lap 21 having just set the fastest tour of the race and is now 75 points away from championship leader Martin with five rounds to go.
“Winning the race, I don’t know,” Bastianini said when asked what was possible without the crash.
“Probably it was possible to bring the second position. For me, with Pedro, it was hard because he was fast.
“But maybe the last two, three laps I was probably with my pace very close to him, trying to attack him and to fight.
“But my hope was try to win, but Jorge was ready from the start. Me at the start I suffered a lot with the rear tyre and it’s like this.”
He added: “For me today the only objective for me was to try to win.
“Was possibly to arrive in third place, or second place, was the best target for me.
“But wasn’t in my mind, my mind was only on the victory. It was one of the last chances.
“Now I have many points to close to the leader and I think it will be very hard. Let’s see, now I have to think about other thinks and try to reset the mind for Motegi.”
Explaining how the crash happened, Bastianini simply said: “I arrived a bit faster compared to the lap before.
“I was still pushing really hard, trying to close the gap to Pedro [Acosta in second]. Well, I arrived over the limit.”
