Bastianini's Podium Consolidates His Place As A Future MotoGP World Champion

Calum Gill 08:15 21/09/2021

In his rookie MotoGP campaign, Italian Enea Bastianini has, for the most part, produced a range of solid performances for the Avintia team.

However, his two most recent showings, at Aragón & Misano, have really caught the eye. In the Aragón race, Bastianini qualified a MotoGP best of ninth place, before progressing up three places in the race, including a last-lap pass on factory KTM rider Brad Binder, to come home in a respectable sixth position. Then, at Misano, after being forced into Q1, the 23-year-old topped the first qualifying session, ahead of 6-time MotoGP world champion Marc Márquez. He had a run in Q2 good enough for 10th place, but had that lap deleted for a track limits violation, leaving him 12th. On race day, he made a lightning start, passing Joan Mir, Johann Zarco and Maverick Viñales before the end of the first lap.

He then got past Márquez, and the Espargaró brothers, as well as capitalising on Jorge Martín's unfortunate fall to find himself running fourth with not even a third of the race complete. After being passed by championship leader Fabio Quartararo, Ducati's Jack Miller found himself struggling for pace, which allowed Bastianini to catch up to Australia's Miller, and pass him heading into turn 13 with 9 laps to go.

Bastianini then put a gap of almost 5.5 seconds to eventual fourth place Márquez by the time they reached the chequered flag, to complete the podium behind winner Pecco Bagnaia and Quartararo. What makes these showings even more impressive is the fact that Avintia are using two-year-old Ducati bikes.

These impressive performances have not just come out of the blue though. After being confirmed at Avintia for 2021 alongside Luca Marini, Bastianini then rose to the top of the Moto2 standings with a fourth place finish at the first Valencia race, coupled with pre-race championship leader Sam Lowes crashing out. It was a lead he would not yield for the rest of the season, claiming the middleweight title in his second season at the level.

The way in which Bastianini achieved this caught the eye as well, with dominant victories in back to back races at the Andalusian and Czech Grands Prix last year. He kept a consistent level of performance up, getting the maximum out of the bike at almost every race of the shortened 2020 calendar.

Bastianini has adapted well to life in the premier class. After a good return of 10th, 11th and 9th across the first three rounds of the season, he made his first real error of the year, crashing out of the Jerez race. 14th in the rain-affected Le Mans race followed, before an inadvertent collision with Zarco on the warm up lap at Mugello stopped Bastianini from competing in his first home MotoGP. A strong 10th place at the Catalan Grand Prix preceded a 16th in Germany, and a 15th in the Netherlands.

After the summer break, he came 12th in the Styrian Grand Prix, before an unfortunate incident a week later in the Austrian Grand Prix - where the side fairing of his Avintia launched itself off the side of his bike at high speed. Another 12th place at Silverstone followed, before Bastianini really picked up the form, with his 6th place in Aragón and podium in Misano. Compared to teammate Marini, Bastianini lies in 15th place in the standings, on 61 points, compared to Marini's 20th place, where he has garnered 28 points.

With the VR46 team taking over from the Avintia outfit next year, Bastianini will face new competition on the other side of the garage. The Gresini Racing team will make a transition to a satellite team, as a result of Aprilia ending its partnership with Gresini - after the Noale manufacturer decided to enter a full factory outfit from next year - leaving Gresini to search for a factory squad to use the bikes of. Along with VR46, Gresini will use the concurrent Ducati machines from next year - with the factory team and Pramac using the new spec - meaning that Bastianini will remain on a Ducati bike with Gresini alongside new rookie teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio, who currently lies 7th in the Moto2 standings.

Should Bastianini keep this good run of form going for the remaining four races of 2021, and he has a good season in comparison to all of the other Ducati riders on year-old machines, there is a strong argument that Bastianini could be in line to capture one of the seats in the Pramac team, where he could really showcase his ability at what is seen as the final stepping stone before a factory Ducati ride. However, this would be dependent on the opportunity arising at the correct time. On the other hand though, performances like Sunday's are impossible to ignore.

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