In Indonesia Enea Bastianini gambled a good chunk of his chances of fighting for the MotoGP title all the way to Valencia, but he did it because he tried until the end, tried to beat Martìn on the track as he felt he had the pace to catch him up and maybe win the Mandalika Grand Prix. Maybe he was ambitious, maybe he went a little bit overboard, but all in all he did the only right thing to do to really try to get into the thick of the fight.
That zero has propelled him to a hefty -75 from Martìn in the overall standings, a tally that is certainly not easy to digest. But in recent weeks we have often seen the situation suddenly turn upside down, so completely excluding Enea from the title battle might be a mistake, especially when there are five rounds to go before the end of the world championship and there are 185 points up for grabs.
"I didn't race here in 2023, but it's a track I like and I think it's great for the Ducati," Bastianini commented at Motegi , "I think it will be important to figure out in the first session how to find good speed right away for the rest of the weekend. I am ready, Motegi is one of my favorite tracks and I want to be competitive."
Will we now see an aggressive Bastianini or a conservative one until the end of the year?
"Good question! I took a big risk in Mandalika, because the first part of the race didn't go as I expected. After that my pace improved and I felt I had a lot of confidence with the bike, so I told myself that was the time to push and fight for the win. But the gap was too big, I took a risk but in my opinion it was worth taking to try to win that race. In the end I crashed, but that's part of the game. For the next races I will have to try to always be competitive and bring home as many points as possible. I don't know what my real approach will be, I will think about it before each race."
How come you only really woke up in the second half of the championship?
"I used the first part of the season to get familiar with a little bit of everything around me. Starting from the bike, to my team, to my crew chief. It's like I archived 2023, because it was a disaster. I wasn't super fast at the beginning of the year, but I had good consistency. But now I really have great confidence with the bike, I feel strong and fast everywhere, I'm often on the podium. Jorge and Pecco made some mistakes, but I have 75 points to make up and I think I'm slightly out of the title fight, but if it's possible to recover and close this gap, I want to try."
Do you think winning the world championship is realistic, difficult or impossible for you at this point?
"It's not realistic to think about winning the title, it's difficult. It's not realistic because I think I have little chance from a percentage point of view. I would say it is more of a dream, while I see it as realistic to fight for third position in the world championship."
Do you think you can be the tiebreaker for the title between Martìn and Pecco?
"I don't know honestly. I'm fast and we will probably bother both Marc and I until the end, because we are both fast. We will always be in front, then there is also Acosta who is going fast. For sure we can cause trouble, but getting into the title fight is tough."
Is Motegi the right track to relaunch your aspirations?
"I hope so, it's a track I really like. I didn't race here last year, but I like strong braking. It could be a favorable track, but the other bikes here will be strong as well."
Do you think you will get to a point where you have to help Pecco to win?
"There are so many races left, I'm fighting for something too so I would like to keep fighting for this something without thinking about anything else."
But who do you see as favourite between Pecco and Jorge?
"The numbers say Pecco, he has already won world championships in MotoGP, he knows how to deal with these situations."