BASTIANINI UNLOCKS HIS ARAGON RACE WITH A DIFFERENT WARM-UP SETUP AND PASSES MOREIRA

Enea Bastianini’s Aragon weekend began with frustration and ended with a hard-earned recovery, as the Tech3 KTM rider went from struggling for pace to finishing eighth after a race that saw him steadily build confidence.

In the early sessions at MotorLand, Bastianini was “not on anyone’s radar,” with problems “on all fronts” that he said were not solved even by qualifying, where he ended up 16th. The Sprint offered little immediate relief: while teammate Pedro Acosta looked set to fight for the front, “La Bestia” remained stuck behind the Yamaha riders, with Rins and Razgatlioglu in front of him. He crossed the line 14th, 13 seconds behind Acosta.

On Sunday, the mood changed quickly. Bastianini said that in the opening laps he did not have to deal with direct rivals, and that allowed him to grow into the bike. After the Sprint, he explained that expectations were low, so he tried a different setup during Warm-up. However, he admitted that it was difficult to judge whether the change would truly work because the tyres take time to reach full performance: “After the Sprint the expectations were very low, so in the Warm-up we tried a different setting. But in the Warm-up it’s very difficult for me to understand whether it really works, also because the tyres take a while to get to full performance.”

Once he found rhythm, Bastianini reported that the motorcycle felt very good and that he could start making passes: “After a few laps the bike felt very good, and I could start overtaking.” He benefited from traffic ahead, including a situation where Brad Binder dropped back. In just lap five, he overtook four riders, then continued his charge over Joan Mir and Jack Miller.

With the race already in the top 10, the next challenge was rookie Diogo Moreira. Bastianini described the difficulty in knowing the rider well and highlighted Moreira’s braking style: “To be honest, compared to other riders I don’t know Diogo much. I haven’t ridden with him very much; overtaking him was a real task, also because he brakes very hard and very consistently. So it took a bit longer.” According to the race account, it took seven laps—about 35 kilometres—for Bastianini to finally get past. Speedweek also noted that Moreira started the Grand Prix from 10th on his RC213V and was running close behind teammate Johann Zarco at the beginning, before being passed by Fermin Aldeguer in the second lap. After the retirements of Pecco Bagnaia and Raul Fernandez, Moreira was already eighth, then held a steady line until the closing stages when Bastianini arrived.

Moreira later reflected on the duel, saying: “I really enjoyed it. At the beginning it was difficult. We knew it wouldn’t be easy to get temperature into the medium tyres. We managed the race well. The fight with Enea at the end was beautiful. I only made a mistake in the last sector in the last lap. But we can be happy—it was a positive weekend for us.”

In the closing stages, Moreira was unable to hold him off. Bastianini used his experience to outmanoeuvre the youngster, securing eighth place and a more positive conclusion to a weekend that had looked uncertain. The result still underlined the gap to Acosta, who continued to run at the front; Bastianini noted that the fastest lap showed Acosta pulling away by 0.6 seconds.