Best MotoGP result concludes ‘perfect weekend’ in Aragon for Bastianini

Enea Bastianini heads into his home round of Misano following a season best MotoGP performance in Aragon. 

The Italian rookie came from ninth - also his best qualifying position of the season to claim sixth place after picking off some impressive names late on. 

During the early stages Bastianini actually lost places, however, the Esponsorama Ducati rider regrouped before a lengthy battle with championship leader Fabio Quartararo and Takaaki Nakagami. 

After finally getting the better of the Yamaha rider for ninth, Bastianini then got past Iker Lecuona before chasing down two of the last three race winners in MotoGP. 

Bastianini made light work of Jorge Martin and then KTM rider Brad Binder who is usually the one making late race moves. 

Speaking after his best result of the season, Bastianini added: "My feeling is really nice because it was a perfect weekend. It was important to arrive in this race. 

"It’s fantastic to get this sixth place today and I battled a lot every laps with Fabio [Quartararo], with Taka [Nakagami]. 

"In the last five laps I battled with Jorge Martin and Binder, and I arrived in front of them. 

"It’s a great result for me and also for my team. Now I’m more confident for Misano, but we have to stay concentrated for all the week like here. 

"After we will see what we can do and if it is possible to try and do better or not. But, I will try my best to do it again."

While his Aragon result might have come as a surprise to some, Bastianini has looked more and more comfortable in recent rounds. 

Aside from a couple of crashes at Silverstone which impacted his weekend, the former Moto2 champion showed impressive speed at that venue to still come away with 12th - a result he managed at the second Austrian round.