BASTIANINI LEADS KTM IN QATAR BUT STRUGGLES WITH RACE PACE

Enea Bastianini delivered one of his strongest performances since joining KTM on the opening day of the 2026 Qatar Grand Prix, finishing sixth in the timed session and becoming the manufacturer’s fastest rider. He was less than four-tenths of a second behind championship leader Marc Marquez. Brad Binder secured a place in Q2, while Pedro Acosta, fourth in the standings, missed out in 14th.

The result marked a striking change for Bastianini, whose 2026 season has often been shaped by qualifying struggles and recovery rides. He had reached Q2 only six times in 20 attempts. In Qatar, however, the KTM Tech3 rider found speed over a single lap but struggled to maintain it on race tyres.

His first session offered little encouragement. Bastianini finished around two seconds off the pace and said: “It was terrible, I couldn’t get going at all and felt like I had no grip.” The afternoon session began in similarly difficult fashion, but his fortunes changed when he switched to soft tyres. He set a 1:51.0, improving by 1.1 seconds on his qualifying time from 2025 and going four-tenths quicker than he had managed at the circuit in 2024 on a Ducati Lenovo bike.

Despite the impressive lap, Bastianini was not confident about his prospects over a race distance. He said his relationship with the medium tyre had deteriorated over the past three events: “I can’t explain it; for three events now, the situation with the tyres has changed a lot. I can’t get on with the medium tyre at all.” He added that temperature made no difference, whether riding in the heat or under the lights, and that he was unable to find good race pace. The soft tyre, by contrast, gave him a completely different feeling.

“I’m not happy; it’s extremely hard,” Bastianini said. “It’s good and important to have a good starting position, but in the end it’s about the races, and right now we’re missing the pace. At least we still have some time to work on a solution.”

The Qatar circuit has previously been a happy hunting ground for the Italian: he claimed his first MotoGP victory there in 2022 with Gresini Ducati. His most recent visit, in April 2025, ended with 11th place. Bastianini has not returned to the top step since moving to KTM, and is due to join Trackhouse Racing on an Aprilia for 2027. For now, his strong one-lap showing offers a better starting position, but solving the medium-tyre problem remains the priority if he is to turn it into a competitive race.