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On the eve of the Sepang tests, Jorge Martin said that it's not easy to get off a winning Ducati and get on an Aprilia, a good bike, but not enough to be at the level of the Rossa. We can, therefore, imagine that the same holds true for Enea Bastianini who, from being on the official Lenovo team, ended up in KTM, with all the financial chaos that goes with it, in Tech3. At the end of the first day in Malaysia, the rider from Romagna came in 19th, and he didn't hide his regret regarding an unforeseen setback that affected his Wednesday practice session.
"It's difficult to take stock," he asserted. " I was hoping for something better and, instead, I had to work a lot on my riding position at the beginning. When I got on the bike, my feet were slipping off the footpegs, and I didn't feel comfortable. Then, in the afternoon, when everything was settled, I fell at turn four because of cold brake discs. On the fifth, in order to try to slow down, my front locked up. A little slip up. In any case, the last bike we tried gave me a good feeling. We had adopted it from the third time out, and I'll use it again tomorrow but, obviously, when I got back on the track today, I couldn't do it anymore."
Is it a whole other world compared to the Ducati?
"Yes. I have to admit that, in Barcelona, I hadn't noticed as much difference as on this day. In my opinion, it's a bike that has lots of potential, but it didn't take advantage of it at all. From zero to ten, maybe one or two. I'm going to have to adapt it to my riding style and vice versa, because the strengths are different from the Desmosedici's and, every time I went back to the garage to have changes made and get closer to how I was riding in Ducati, I made it worse."
Where do you struggle the most?
"In entering corners. While it behaves well, it's more difficult for me to enter the way I was used to. I'll have to change that as well, and it's going to take time. Overall, the bike I fell with is the one I went fast with right away. There are some new things that gave good feedback immediately, at least according to my riding style."
Are you relying on data from Acosta and Binder?
"No, not at the moment. I only made a comparison with Viñales, but I now have to figure out what I need. We'll probably do a different job tomorrow and try some new things, so hopefully we'll come out of here with a direction."
Three had fractured including Martin and Diggia. There were a lot of falls today. How do you explain them?
"Coincidences, a bit of bad luck. Jorge got off on the wrong foot like me. Maybe, in cases like that, it's best to behanve conservatively. I don't know if he was pushing because it was his first flying lap. It's a combination of things, and the bad luck saw right through it."
