At Motegi Enea Bastianini tries everything: the podium is the only result that allows him to stay in the running for the World Championship.
Enea Bastianini arrived in Japan first as a tourist, walking around the streets in the company of his friend Tatsu Suzuki, dressed in a black kimono, struggling with shopping in the central areas of the capital. The rider of the Gresini Racing team at Motegi has no other alternative but the podium, to continue to pursue that world champion dream that has never fallen asleep.
The victory in Losail had magically opened the idea, the success of Austin first and then of Le Mans made it possible to turn that dream into a concrete goal. Too bad for the almost inexplicable retirement at Sachsenring, when he reported damage to a rim of his Ducati Desmosedici GP21 after the impact with a curb. They are now 48 points away from the leader Fabio Quartararobut another great performance would be enough to get closer to the top again.
Enea Bastianini and the world chance
The Rimini, fresh from the success at MotorLand of Aragon, is now fourth in the overall standings, behind Pecco Bagnaia and Aleix Espargarò. “I am very happy with the last weekend – Enea Bastianini admitted at a press conference in Motegi -. It was one of the best of my life, because we have been fast since Friday ”. It will be necessary to do the same in this eastern weekend, with only one free practice session on Friday. The 24-year-old has never ridden in a MotoGP here, but it doesn’t seem to cause concern. “Motegi is a beautiful track, I like the hard braking areas”.
The key will be the qualifications, starting from the front is an advantage for anyone in a championship at the limit like the current one. There is also no data dating back to Motegiif not those of 2019. “MotoGP has changed a lot since then, there is a lot more aerodynamics on the bike, since then the rear device has also been introduced, which will shuffle the cards properly“. Not to mention that even the meter could make its appearance not secondary.
Enea Bastianini needs a good result when there are 5 races to go. the 48 points of gap force you to push and dare every weekend. Without thinking too much about the rumors about team orders. “There have been no team orders so far. I still have some chances of winning the title. I always have to give 100 percent and then we’ll see if there’s an order or not“, Concluded the 2020 Moto2 champion.”There are a lot of questions about this situation, the media is putting a lot of pressure on this topic. The mood in our garage is very good and there are no orders from Ducati ”.
