In a sprint race ranking which saw no less than seven Ducati lock the first places, Enea Bastianini took a good second position which he sought by force. Positioned from the kick-off behind Pecco Bagnaia as well as Pedro Acosta, who would eventually fall, the Italian maintained his rank at the cost of fierce resistance to Marc Márquez.
Both delivered a breathtaking duel at the end of the race, going so far as to chain attacks and replies in the space of three turns on the penultimate lap. Bastianini’s overtaking on the brakes in the famous 90° Corner (turn 11) was the last maneuver in this fight, commanding respect for the Spaniard.
In the process, we could see Bastianini adopt a defensive position in the last lap, without however attacking Bagnaia even though he had let his chasers catch up with him, both out of caution in the face of the rain and out of strategy because he knew he was at the limit in terms of fuel consumption. However, #23 assures him: he would indeed have gone for victory if he had had the time.
“One more lap and I was probably fighting for the victory! In the end, it’s a second place and it’s a bit unexpected because, this weekend, I was fast in the time attack but not so much than that in normal conditions, with a worn tire, so I’m happy”, comments Enea Bastianini.
“I had a lot of fun in this race, I was very close to victory at the end. And then I also had this fight with Marc in the last two laps, which was super nice,” continues the Ducati rider, well aware of everything that happened in this mano a mano.
If he let a little time slip by fighting against Márquez, he also took great pleasure in it, especially since he had the last word. “I lost a little time but it was me because I made a mistake at turn 9. The banking is a little complicated in this corner and I preferred to release the brakes a little and lose the place Then I went back to braking for turn 10 and again for 11”,. he relates, evoking a decisive overtaking which happened to the millimeter. “I closed my eyes and let off the brakes!” he explains to Sky Italy.
And to continue: “It was great! Marc is very difficult to overtake. When he saw me on the inside at turn 11, he released the brakes a little, me too, but then you have to turn well, but I was already a little on the limit but in a better position, closer to the right trajectory, and I went to the inside.”
These maneuvers carried out in the last two laps were, for Bastianini, the expression of his fierce desire not to give in to Márquez rather than the fruit of any advantage he would have had. “When you fight with someone, something clicks. No one likes to be outdone, and that pushed me to do something more. It’s up to me to figure out how I I can do something more, because it wasn’t due to the tires or the performance. I have to try to understand what I did differently.
What is certain is that the day after a complicated day which he ended with neck pain after a big fall, Bastianini got back on track. With the points pocketed today, he is still 71 points behind Martín, championship leader. He will of course try to continue this momentum on Sunday, this time taking advantage of having double the time to try to climb as high as possible, but also certain that he will have to count on Acosta.
“Pedro is very fast here. I expected it because he is very, very good at braking with the right bike and he can sometimes make the difference like that, and this is the best track for that. He committed a mistake at turn 7, he was a little off the line and he fell, but tomorrow I expect to see him at the front.”
Avec Giacomo Rauli
The best photos from Saturday at the Japanese GP MotoGP
Related News :