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Enea Bastianini might have dreamed at the Red Bull Ring of being able to repeat that perfect weekend at Silverstone, where he had enchanted the fans with a magnificent double win in the Sprint and the GP. In Austria, however, things did not go so well, with Enea suffering especially in the braking phase throughout the weekend. After getting into Q2 he hoped to do better at least in the race, but today he had to give second (or third) best to the overwhelming power of Bagnaia and Martìn, who clearly had another pace.
In the championship now Enea is on 214 points, which is 61 less than the leader Bagnaia. He is certainly not out of the fight however and has also stretched out his advantage over Marc Marquez, who could challenge him for the final place on the world championship podium but is now -22 behind the Beast.
"This weekend for me was not easy, but today for the race we took a small step forward and so I stayed not too far behind Pecco and Jorge - were Bastianini's words - I can be satisfied with this podium, but my feelings about the bike were never good. The guys in the box did their best to give me the best possible bike, but in the end it was really difficult. I also suffered a lot with the front tire, it was too soft. I tried the hard, but in some corners I didn't feel comfortable, so I chose the medium."
All in all, a positive podium.
"In the end we saved the weekend, I suffered so many Fridays in corner entry. Today I also made a good start and that helped me in the race. I didn't have the pace of Pecco and Jorge, but if I think about my conditions that were not the best from a technical point of view, I would say I can be happy."
Did you realize what you had less than Bagnaia and Martìn?
"I lacked the breakaway that they had, over the weekend I also tried some engine braking solutions, but nothing worked well. I saw the data and I know that it was in the braking that I was losing so much time compared to Bagnaia and Martìn. Today my pace improved slightly but I knew I couldn't keep up with the two of them. This was one of these weekends that you have to take home trying to get the maximum and this podium is better than I could have imagined. I had zero feeling."
Do you think Jorge and Pecco are better at getting the best out of the GP24 today?
"I think it's not fair to say that. Pecco and Jorge ride very differently from me. The former sometimes has an impressive braking. Jorge sometimes is incredible in the middle of the corner, he brings so much speed at that point. I think I can mix those two aspects from time to time and when I do I fight with them fairly, but today I suffered too much to be able to do that."
You are the man of the second half of the race, did you think today you could do something towards the end?
"No, I didn't really think about it today. This track is not a normal track, there is a lot of straight bike braking. You have little room to invent something coming out of corners and try to save the rear tire. So I never thought I could exploit this ability of mine at the end of the race."
So many riders complained about front-end lock-up, did it happen to you too?
"Sometimes I suffered a lot from the front lock. With the hard I was better, but on the left side it became really risky because the track has a particular conformation, there are a lot of left turns. It was still difficult for me today to keep everything under control."
Do you think you can still have your say in the world championship?
"It's not easy, Pecco is very fast on every track and it won't be easy to fight with him between now and the end of the championship. But I'm here to try anyway and I want to give my best until the end. The fight seems very close between Jorge and Pecco, sometimes one is faster than the other and vice versa, then sometimes I come in who is faster but it has happened a few times. I have to try to exploit my strong points and attack when I can, while in races like today's it's better to be more conservative. I know I am still missing something to always be in front without difficulty. Sometimes I get on the track and I'm 12th, and that's not good if you want to fight for a title."
But now you can maybe more easily sort things?
"That yes, once I would have struggled maybe until Sunday while today I went on the podium. I kept my composure, I knew maybe I wouldn't get to the top, but at least I knew I could improve to get to the podium. I didn't revolutionize the bike, but just made small changes. It's just as well, because at least I know what's under my ass in the race!"
Now comes Aragon, a track you really like.
"I hope to be close to them, Aragon is one of my favorite tracks and it would be important to stay close to Pecco and Jorge for the world championship. I know there is also a new asphalt, so it will be all to figure out once we are there."
Could you do as well there as you did at Silverstone?
"Definitely it's a track I really like, I've always done well there and I hope to do it again this year. Then the two races in Misano will be tough, we are all always a little close there and I'm talking about the Italians. Then Jorge was also very fast last year."
