Side by side on the starting grid and involved in contact at the first corner, Enea Bastianini et George Martin were separated for most of the race at Silverstone, before meeting for a duel at the very end of the race. The two rivals for the free place alongside Pecco Bagnaia in the official Ducati team next year battled for fourth place, which went to Bastianini thanks to an overtake on the very last lap.
Assessed by Ducati for several weeks, the two men did not want to transform this duel on the track into a confrontation for the official handlebars. “I finished ahead of Jorge and gained one more place, which I’m happy with, but not for Ducati’s decision”said Bastianini. “Other factors also come into play.”
The Gresini pilot nevertheless judged “probable” that the result of the Red Bull Ring will be taken into account in the decision, expected after the trip to Austria, and hopes that his overtaking will help tip the balance in his favor: “I always like to give 100% and if I see someone in front on the last lap I will try to pass them, as is the case with the other drivers too, I think. I could see that it was possible, I waited for the right moment.”
“Obviously, it is surely an additional help for those who are entitled to make decisions, but as I have already said, I am quite calm in one case as in the other. We will see. If it was still the case in Austria [s’il le devance, ndlr], it is certain that there would be no reason to make another choice. But Jorge is in any case a very strong driver, we all know his value, his talent.”
Beaten on Sunday, Martín understandably sought to downplay the significance of the setback for his future. “I don’t think they will decide on this race or on Austria”confided the one who currently wears the colors of the Pramac team. “We just have to get results. [Dimanche] we did it, I’m doing my best and it’s the only thing possible.”
Martín thinks he could have played for the victory
The two drivers had perhaps the potential for their duel to concern a position on the podium, neither of them having experienced an optimal weekend. Jorge Martín even feels that he had the pace to claim victory but that his start in ninth position made it difficult for him for a race during which he had to multiply overtaking.
“I’m super happy because starting ninth is not easy at all. I had a great start, I attacked a lot in the first laps and I paid for it at the end of the race, I I had no more tyres. It was super tight, not just for the podium but also for the win. I think I had the pace to play for the win.”
Jorge Martín believes his qualifying compromised his race
“I lost time with pilots, I fought a lot with Aleix [Espargaró] and Maverick [Viñales]. I also dubbed Rins and Fabio [Quartararo]. I’m still happy with our comeback in the race. I think overall it was a good weekend and I will be really good in Austria.”
Martín’s aggressiveness at the start of the race hurt him at the end of the race, but this fourth consecutive top 7 remains satisfactory after the accumulation of crashes at the start of the season: “I missed being good on braking, I was losing the front a bit and also didn’t have enough weight in the rear in my opinion. I was struggling to slow the bike down. I We remain satisfied with fifth place. We have been consistent for four or five races and that is what counts. We are back in our place.”
Bastianini lost an aileron
On the side of Bastianini, qualified a position in front of Martín, it was mainly contact at the start, including one with the Madrid player, and a wing lost on the left side of his Ducati which posed a problem. Coming out of the top 10, the Italian needed a few laps to understand the problem and adapt to it. He moved up the rankings in the second part of the race, the phase in which he is often able to make the difference.
“It was difficult to manage the bike in this situation. On the first lap, I didn’t even understand this wing problem. I hit Marco [Bezzecchi] and Martín and lost something but I didn’t see it was the fin. After two laps, I understood that the bike had a problem, I was losing it a bit in the left turns. When I understood that, after three or four laps, I had confidence in the bike and I regained feeling. In the end, it was more difficult without the wing but not that much.”
Like Martín, Bastianini believes he had the pace to do better. “Without this problem, I might have been able to play for the podium and the victory, but you have to move forward to understand what you can do”he told the official MotoGP website. “I really enjoyed this race and we have to continue in this direction.”
A spoiler was ripped off the left side of Enea Bastianini’s motorcycle
The behavior of the Ducati was more unpredictable in the changes of direction and in the curves to the left but Bastianini knew how to adapt to this new balance: “I was lucky with the conditions because the wind was very light today and if it had been too strong it would have been more difficult for me in terms of riding.
Winner of three of the first seven rounds of the year, Bastianini had since returned to the ranks with two falls and finishes in tenth place in Germany and 11th in the Netherlands. This return to the top 5, which allows him to move up to fourth position in championshipcould help him relaunch his season.
“I hope so but after two races not really good for me, now we have to put things back on track. I drove very well [dimanche]. Guys parsed the data and I was fast in input [de courbe], as my style always allows. We don’t know if we can continue like this, but probably so.”
With Lena Buffa