Enea Bastianini also starts a chase in Indonesia, but it goes wrong – in his opinion, second place for Pedro Acosta would have been possible
Enea Bastianini crashed in his chase and ended the Indonesian Grand Prix in the gravel trap. After the start, the Ducati rider was still second behind eventual winner Jorge Martin. But Bastianini was unable to keep the pace and fell back into a group in fifth place.
He finally managed to get past Marco Bezzecchi and then Franco Morbidelli in a close duel. “Franco is fast and his riding style is very different from mine,” Bastianini compared.
“At some points I got closer, at others I lost ground again and couldn’t attack him in the next corner. That was a problem. Overtaking maneuvers are also difficult on this track because some places are quite narrow.”
On the 17th lap, Bastianini passed Morbidelli. At that point, he was three and a half seconds behind Martin at the front of the field. He was quickly able to reduce the gap to two and a half seconds.
On the 20th lap, Bastianini set the fastest lap of the race before crashing in turn 1. “I was a bit too fast compared to the lap before,” he said, explaining the crash. “I was trying to reduce the gap to Acosta and went over the limit.”
“My goal was to win the race. But something was wrong in the first few laps. My rear wheel kept slipping, and I couldn’t go fast. After ten laps, it got better. I was able to open the throttle better.”
The charge is over! A tyre-whispering masterpiece ends up in the gravel @Bestia23 CRASHES OUT OF THE PODIUM IndonesianGP pic.twitter.com/jJqkVgWeAb
— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) September 29, 2024
“With each lap I got closer and wanted to try to win the race.” But would that actually have been possible? “I think I would have caught Acosta, but I don’t think Martin. Unfortunately, I lost too much time behind Morbidelli.”
In the current season, Sunday marked Bastianini’s first retirement. He failed to score any points in Barcelona after ignoring a long-lap penalty and receiving a time penalty for doing so.
With five weekends remaining, his deficit in the championship has grown to 75 points. Is his realistic chance over? “It’s not the end of the championship yet,” says Bastianini. “But I’m further behind now.”