BASTIANINI BLAMES GRIP PROBLEMS FOR NINTH-PLACE SPRINT

Enea Bastianini left the Malaysian Grand Prix Sprint frustrated after a ninth-place finish, describing the race as a “disaster” despite feeling encouraged by his qualifying performance earlier in the day.

The Tech3 KTM rider had been among three KTM competitors to reach Q2. He said he was pleased with how things had gone in the morning, although he lost time in the third sector: “We were up front in the first and second sectors, like we were in sector four.”

The Sprint was a sharp contrast. Bastianini said he had no grip from the opening lap and struggled to accelerate, feeling as though the bike was not working properly. He tried to recover time under braking, but difficult conditions and rain later in the race made progress harder. He dropped back as the rain arrived, then reduced the gap slightly on the final lap, but said it was already too late to change the outcome.

Bastianini finished ninth, behind KTM team-mate Brad Binder, who took seventh. Maverick Viñales, another KTM rider who had qualified for Q2, pitted for wet-weather tyres and lost the chance of a strong result. Binder was the only KTM rider who failed to make Q2.

The result also highlighted a broader difficulty for Bastianini: he has been unable to call on his usual late-race pace when tyres wear heavily. “I can’t ride the way I used to anymore, and I can’t tap into my potential to be fast in the final stages, especially on tracks where we wear out the tires a lot,” he said.

He contrasted Sepang with Japan, where lower tyre wear had allowed him to perform strongly towards the end. “In Japan, without tire wear, we managed to be strong in the final stages, while we struggle on tracks with heavy tire wear,” he explained. “This is the current situation. We’ll work for tomorrow.”