On Sunday at Motegi Marc Marquez took his own revenge on Bastianini and the latter finished at the foot of the podium at the Japanese GP. A fourth place with a bitter aftertaste for Enea, who harbored hopes of victory at the Twin Ring.
In the end, the Ducati rider had to console himself with fourth place at the end of a race marked immediately at the start as he himself admitted.
"There is frustration because the first lap did not go according to my expectations - he began - after overtaking Binder on the limit I lost several positions, arriving with a lot of turbulence at turn 11. Once I overtook him the race was good even if the tire pressure was high. Unfortunately it was too late to think about recovering and getting on the podium."
How do you rate the duel with Brad?
"He did his best, and that's normal for him. However, I don't understand why, because he knows his situation and after two or three laps he would have been slower. The fact is that my pace was as good as Marc's. I tried to do something more, but I struggled because when it was time to push I was already at the limit."
Is it true that you had some problems with the brakes?
"Sometimes, especially in free practice, I struggle a little bit. However, it depends on the movement of the bike and we will have to talk about it with Brembo for the future because I don't know what it depends on."
How regretful are you about this fourth place?
"Today I had the chance and the pace to try to win, in fact I am left with a bitter taste in my mouth about that. So I will have to study the first lap, because if I suffered that overtaking it was because I made mistakes."
How would you have imagined the duel with Marquez?
"It's always hard to say. Marc has a character that doesn't give up and I would have had to push the whole race to overtake him. The problem today was that the tire was gone and I didn't have anything else."
Now it's Australia, what should we expect?
"I'm looking forward to being there, because I like it, but there will be weather to contend with and a race I imagine it will be quite tight. I'm disappointed about today, though, because I'm not on the podium."