Enea Bastianini finished third at the MotoGP San Marino GP last Sunday. On a 2019 Ducati Desmosedici and on Avintia – one of the cheapest teams in the premier class – the rookie achieved an unlikely podium, which drove team boss Ruben Xaus into ecstasy. This was the second podium in two seasons for the structure, after the one Johann Zarco achieved at the 2020 Czech Republic GP.
The person in charge confided to DAZN that the result was more special than last season, not least because it was built up step by step: “This podium tastes much better than last year’s. We built it: he was ninth on the first lap, he passed Marc Márquez, Aleix Espargaró, Joan Mir, Álex Rins, Jack Miller … I mean, it was a great race. Zarco has been on the podium before. Now we’re talking about a rookie and that is [the team’s] last season in MotoGP. We reached a podium on a very limited budget.
In addition, Xaus recalls, Zarco’s bike was more competitive on the 2020 podium than Bastianini’s at Misano, this result being the combination of a strong structure and the rider’s performance: “Zarco didn’t want to compete for us, but he had a lot “better bike than Bastianinis now. In Brno [in 2020] We got pole position and that was very good, but a lot has happened. Not in this race. After our podium with Johann Zarco, everyone said: ‘Ah, but it’s Johann, it’s the bike …’. We’re doing it again with the same team without having a better bike, which means the set-up is incredible, in addition to an incredible performance from the rider. “