Enea Bastianini’s Australia sprint turnaround: From ‘suffering’ to ‘unexpected’ third
Ducati rider comes from 10th on the grid to take Australian GP sprint podium
Enea Bastianini says Ducati was able to solve the rear stability issues that had plagued him during the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix weekend in time for the sprint.
The factory Ducati rider failed to get into the Q2 places after Friday practice and could only manage 10th when he advanced from Q1 on Saturday morning in qualifying.
But Bastianini was able to convert this into a run to third in the sprint, which included overtaking his world champion team-mate Francesco Bagnaia in the latter stages.
A key issue for Bastianini at Phillip Island was movement on the rear of his GP24 on the new surface, but knew from the sighting lap ahead of the sprint that he could “do a great race”.
“Yeah, I’m happy because it has been a bit unexpected that podium in the sprint, because I suffered a lot during all the weekend with the rear,” he said.
“The main problem was the movements. But in the end, for the sprint, we solved a bit that problem.
“I saw that during the sighting lap, I understood ‘Ok, I can do a great race today’ and has been a fantastic battle at the start, and also in the last three, four laps I was close to Marc [Marquez].
“But I was without this 0.1s, 0.2s more [to challenge him] and it was impossible to attack him.
“The new asphalt is not bad, but today the wind was too strong.
“Also, in the race it was really difficult when you were alone.
“When you were in a group it was also difficult because on the straight the slipstream was a very, very bad situation with all the turbulence.
“But at the end, we know that Phillip Island is like this with the wind, with the birds. It’s good.”
Looking towards the grand prix, Bastianini isn’t convinced the soft rear tyre he used in the sprint is a viable option for Sunday and will look over Marco Bezzecchi’s data of the medium he raced to better inform his decision.
“For me, no, because we have to check better the situation with Michelin,” he said about racing the soft on Sunday.
“But probably the best situation will be to use the medium tomorrow and we have the data of Marco, because he was with the medium on the rear in the sprint.
“In the end, he crashed, but we can check something.”
