Bastianini thinks running final MotoGP round in flood-hit Spain “not correct”

Enea Bastianini thinks MotoGP staging its final round of the season in Spain is “not correct” amid the ongoing recovery efforts from last week’s deadly flooding.

A year’s worth of rainfall hammered Valencia and its surrounding towns last week, leading to immense destruction to infrastructure and causing over 200 known deaths.

The destruction affected the access routes to the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in the Cheste region of Valencia, while the circuit itself has been housing those displaced by the flooding.

This ultimately led to the cancellation of the Valencia Grand Prix, which was due to bring the curtain down on the 2024 MotoGP season on the weekend of 15-17 November.

With that announced on Friday, MotoGP has hastily been putting plans in place to find a replacement event.

Numerous alternatives were proposed, with it originally thought that the final round would be pushed back to the 22-24 November weekend and be staged in Qatar.

On Sunday at the Malaysian GP, Dorna Sports confirmed that it was now working to hold the event on the 15-17 November but at Barcelona.

Ducati rider Bastianini is against this idea, though, believing it’s not right to be racing in Spain given the situation in the country right now.

“For Marc, it’s a good event to go to Barcelona, his town,” Bastianini said after finishing third at Sepang, responding to a question about his battle in the championship for third with Marc Marquez.

“For me, it wasn’t correct to race in Spain. But it’s like this, this is the choice of Dorna.

“But nothing, we have to give 100%. I have to be much stronger compared to the race in Barcelona at the start of the season, because I was fast but I got two, three long lap penalties. Let’s see.”

Over the weekend, Spain’s prime minister ordered the largest peacetime deployment of military personnel - 10,000 troops and police - to help with recovery efforts in the aftermath of the flooding.

Dorna’s chief sporting officer Carlos Ezpeleta says the decision on the Barcelona race will be green lit by the local government, who will engage in discussions with the national government.

Prior to Valencia’s cancellation, a number of riders stood against racing at Ricardo Tormo in wake of the flooding crisis, with world champion Francesco Bagnaia threatening a boycott even if it cost him the title.