Bastianini “wasn’t confident” of Misano MotoGP podium return

Avintia rookie Enea Bastianini admits his crash-strewn Saturday meant he “wasn’t confident” of returning to the podium in Sunday’s MotoGP Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Bastianini claimed his maiden MotoGP podium five weeks ago when MotoGP last visited Misano for the San Marino GP having come from 12th on the grid.

A repeat looked unlikely after he suffered three crashes on Saturday and qualified down in 16th.

However, the 2020 Moto2 world champion once again climbed up the order and capitalised on high attrition to snatch third away from Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo on the final lap.

“Yes, it stayed a very difficult weekend for me,” Bastianini said after the race.

“On Saturday I destroyed three bikes in eight laps, and today I wasn’t confident to arrive on the podium.

“But after many laps during the race I saw my pace and it was really close to the first group with Marc [Marquez] and Pecco [Bagnaia].

“The last 10 laps I pushed a lot to recover some positions and in the end I was in fourth place.

“Also, I saw Fabio very close to me and in the last lap I pushed all to recover to him and I passed Fabio at the Caro [hairpin].

“Also, I want to say thanks to my team because they did a very, very good job yesterday and also today.

“The battle with Fabio was very strange because he was battling for the title and in the end won.

“But inside me I thought only I wanted to arrive in third place because I was very close to him. I stayed polished in my overtaking, so I’m happy.”

Enea Bastianini, Esponsorama Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

This marked Bastianini’s fourth-successive top six result of his rookie campaign, but insists he must improve his qualifying results having started the last four rounds ninth, 12th, 16th and 16th.

“I think the qualifying because every time I start from ninth to 16th,” he replied when asked what he needs to improve going forward.

“This is not good for the race because I have to do a lot of overtaking.

“I think we have to work also on the Saturday in FP4 to do more laps consecutively because always I did short runs. Now we study what we can do for the next races.”