Enea Bastianini claims seventh place in the Grand Prix of the Americas

After a positive sprint race on Saturday with a 13th place, Enea Bastianini was back for the main event on Sunday at COTA, a track he has often been strong on. As light drops of rain started to spread uncertainty amongst all riders on the grid, Enea had opted for the slick tyres hoping that the rain would completely stop. Many riders started to run back to their pitboxes to change bikes, creating a bit of a chaos that was quickly stopped by the race direction as they waved the red flag, to re-schedule a new start a few minutes later for 19 laps instead of 20. When lights were out for good, Enea gained two positions after the opening lap to sit behind Marco Bezzecchi. He remained in that position for a while until making a move on Ai Ogura, and by lap 9 he was in 13th, and he found himself 0.186 seconds from Fabio Quartararo. He quickly found his way through the Frenchman, to progress to 12th the following lap. Joan Mir’s crash ahead earned him one more position at the doors of the top 10, while the Italian’s pace kept getting stronger, in the low 2’03. After 13 laps, he was in 10th to battle it out for 9th against Luca Marini. Bestia continued to put pressure on his fellow countryman, to eventually get the better of him in sector 3 of lap 15. Just ahead, an ongoing battle between Marco Bezzecchi and Johann Zarco allowed Bastianini to close the gap on these two, with now just a 0.3 second-gap from Zarco with just 3 laps to go. On his 16th lap, Enea clocked in an excellent 2’02.953, clearly in the pace of the front, one that gave him the confidence to fight for 8th against Zarco. Eventually he attacked on the inside the number 5, to move up to 8th, while the Frenchman crashed under pressure. Shortly after, Firmin Aldeguer crashed too, and Enea was in 7th with 3 laps to go, a position he kept until the checkered flag. Awesome race from Bastianini, from 17th to 7th, who goes home with his best result of the season.

I am happy about my race, it has been the best one since the start of the season. I was riding very well from the middle until the end of the race, and I felt good for probably the first time on this bike. Our pace was good, and we improved as the laps went by, so I am happy. I think that we improved our bike from yesterday, which is positive for us, we are moving forward. We have found a good direction that we will need to check in the next round.

Source: motogp.tech3racing.fr