2023-11-12 09:49:19
While Enea Bastianini held back well behind his teammate and World Championship leader Pecco Bagnaia in the sprint on Saturday, he escaped from his competitors right from the start at the Malaysian GP on Sunday. He finally celebrated his first GP victory as a Ducati factory rider, 1.535 seconds ahead of second-placed Alex Márquez (Gresini Ducati).
«After this terrible season, it feels great to win once more. But the result wasn’t unexpected because we approached the weekend with a different attitude,” beamed the race winner following what had been a troubled MotoGP season for him so far. Because his debut as a Ducati works rider went anything than expected. After he broke his right shoulder blade in the Portimão sprint and was then out of the main race and four other GPs.
The next setback for Bastianini came in Barcelona. At that time, the 25-year-old Italian caused a collision at the start in which he suffered a fracture of the inner ankle on his left foot and a fracture of the second metacarpal bone on the left and missed three more GPs. “My girlfriend had to wash me several times, I reached the bottom,” admitted the Ducati rider from Rimini seriously. «It’s not easy to get out of a situation like this. But my girlfriend and my family helped me.”
Up until the Malaysia GP, the 2020 Moto2 world champion’s season was sluggish; his best result so far was eighth place in Germany and India. So what caused this jump in performance? “That’s a secret,” smiled “La Bestia,” but then added: “A week ago my crew chief called me and said he knows what I want and what I need. We found the solution to my problems.”
Bastianini owed his fifth MotoGP victory to one change in particular: “The set-up is the same. But we have changed the response of the engine brake. I also used the thumb brake, which helped me a lot during the hard braking phases. In the last few races I lost a lot of time in the braking phases. I did it better here.”
Result MotoGP race, Sepang (12.11.):
1. Enea Bastianini, Ducati, 20 Rdn in 39:59.137 min
2. Alex Márquez, Ducati, + 1,535 sec
3. Pecco Bagnaia, Ducati, +3,562
4. Jorge Martin, Ducati, +10,526
5. Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha, + 15,000
6. Marco Bezzecchi, Ducati, +16,946
7. Franco Morbidelli, Yamaha, +18.553
8. Jack Miller, KTM, + 19,204
9. Fabio Di Giannantonio, Ducati, +19,399
10. Luca Marini, Ducati, +19,740
11. Maverick Viñales, Aprilia, +21,189
12. Johann Zarco, Ducati, +23,598
13. Marc Márquez, Honda, +27,079
14. Augusto Fernández, KTM, + 28,940
15. Pol Espargaro, KTM, +29,849
16. Iker Lecuona, Honda, + 50,960
17. Alvaro Bautista, Ducati, + 53.564
18. Takaaki Nakagami, Honda, + 1:42,162 min
– Brad Binder, KTM, 9 laps back
– Aleix Espargaró, Aprilia, 12 laps back
– Raúl Fernández, Aprilia, 14 laps back
– Miguel Oliveira, Aprilia, 15 laps back
– Joan Mir, Honda, 16 laps back
Result MotoGP Sprint, Sepang (11.11):
1. Alex Márquez, Ducati, 10 Rdn in 19:58,713 min
2. Jorge Martin, Ducati, +1,589 sec
3. Pecco Bagnaia, Ducati, +3.034
4. Enea Bastianini, Ducati, +3,242
5. Brad Binder, KTM, +3,310
6. Jack Miller, KTM, +4,318
7. Marco Bezzecchi, Ducati, +5,307
8. Johann Zarco, Ducati, +5,501
9. Luca Marini, Ducati, +6.420
10. Maverick Viñales, Aprilia, +7,241
11. Franco Morbidelli, Yamaha, +8.775
12. Aleix Espargaró, Aprilia, +9.995
13. Fabio Di Giannantonio, Ducati, +10.067
14. Augusto Fernández, KTM, +10,643
15. Pol Espargaró, KTM, +11,005
16. Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha, +11,911
17. Raúl Fernández, Aprilia, +13,591
18. Miguel Oliveira, Aprilia, +15,058
19. Takaaki Nakagami, Honda, +16,015
20. Iker Lecuona, Honda, +23,484
21. Marc Márquez, Honda, +24,930
22. Alvaro Bautista, Ducati, +36.501
23. Joan Mir, Honda, +40,594
MotoGP World Championship standings following 35 of 39 races:
1. Bagnaia, 412 Punkte. 2. Martin 398. 3. Bezzecchi 323. 4. Binder 254. 5. Zarco 200. 6. Aleix Espargaró 198. 7. Viñales 175. 8. Marini 171. 9. Quartararo 156. 10. Miller 156. 11. Alex Márquez 149. 12. Di Giannantonio 100. 13. Morbidelli 93. 14. Marc Márquez 84. 15. Bastianini 76. 16. Oliveira 76. 17. Augusto Fernández 69. 18. Rins 54. 19. Nakagami 52. 20. Raúl Fernández 40 21. Pedrosa 32. 22. Mir 24. 23. Pol Espargaró 13. 24. Savadori 9. 25. Folger 9. 26. Bradl 8. 27. Pirro 5. 28. Petrucci 5. 29. Crutchlow 3.
Constructors’ World Championship:
1. Ducati, 626 points (world champion). 2. KTM 334. 3. Aprilia 292. 4. Yamaha 176. 5. Honda 169.
Team World Cup:
1. Prima Pramac Racing, 598 Punkte. 2. Ducati Lenovo Team 498. 3. Mooney VR46 Racing 494. 4. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 410. 5. Aprilia Racing 373. 6. Gresini Racing 249. 7. Monster Energy Yamaha 249. 8. CryptoDATA RNF 120. 9. LCR Honda 112. 10. Repsol Honda 108. 11. GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3, 91.
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