RiderTua.com – Enea Bastianini has some regrets about racing in the Qatar MotoGP, but he didn’t start the season badly, in the next race he aims to be on the podium.
Enea Bastianini opened the first race of the 2024 season by placing 6th in Saturday’s Sprint and 5th in Sunday’s race. He bagged a total of 15 points, not bad, although he clearly wanted to fight for something more. Meanwhile, given last season’s poor run, it was important to start with a solid first race and that was certainly the case. Obviously, finishing behind Marc Marquez, who is equipped with a Desmosedici GP23, cannot make him happy, but there are still many other races where he can show his full abilities.
Enea Bastianini’s regrets at the Qatar MotoGP Race
In the past, this Rimini racer proved to be very good at managing tires and was the highlight of every race, especially in the second half of the race. On Sunday he started the race a little late.. “A little slow because of the choice of tyre, because I expected a more significant tire drop and instead there was a smaller drop than expected. I was conservative at all, I’m sorry because I could have done it “a little better. Besides, I won’t be able to reach Pecco’s speed,” he said.
Bastianini should have worked harder on Sunday and he regrets not doing so, of course with a very specific aim. He admits that he wants to get more from this weekend in Qatar and hopes to perform better in the Portugal series, where a year ago he suffered a serious injury. From the results of the Qatar test, Bastianini actually hopes for more on this track. “On the contrary, the conditions changed and since Friday we have more or less remained there, we have not made much progress. We will analyze the data to try to understand what is not going well. I have unfinished business with Portimao, I will see if I can compete there,” he added.
Will Enea be able to step on the podium at Portimao?
The official Ducati rider still doesn’t feel the best sensations with his Desmosedici GP24, but he feels much better when riding his bike compared to last year. “This race helped us a lot, gave the team a lot of information about my sensations. It would be nice to do another one again … I still don’t feel the bike fits 100%, but basically it’s better than the GP23. I feel better, I think we can take some steps forward, there’s still margin and let’s try to make it happen soon.”
The next race will be held at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve and it will be interesting to see whether the riders will still face the problems experienced in Lusail. “We expect (Portugal) to be different (to Qatar) in terms of tire wear and bike vibration, although that is a sign asked. In Qatar until Saturday the vibration of the motorbike was a bit critical and there was some chaos in the garage, but during the race I expected more and in the end it wasn’t a problem. Hopefully this doesn’t happen again in the future,” concluded Bestia.
