In a way, Enea Bastianini’s weekend reflects the ups and downs of Portimao. Although he does not make it into Q2, the Italian’s glass is to be regarded as half full. However, a race awaits him on Sunday that he has to tackle with a knife between his teeth, as happened exactly two weeks ago in Misano when he had to start from behind.
However, the Avintia driver is fully aware of his own qualities and therefore wants to attack from the start.
“Unfortunately I couldn’t get into Q2 today – said Enea – The lap time was good, but Zarco and Lecuona did better than me. During the day I had to work on the setup because I didn’t feel as though I was going straight into Q2. All in all, I think my pace is not bad, even if we still need to understand a few things for the race. That is certainly not my real potential, considering the weekend last April, among other things.
Bastianini then said he had to take some of the blame for his view of the weekend.
“Unfortunately, I have lost too much time to be quick right away, that has happened before and in the future it will no longer be allowed to happen in 2022.”
Many observers now dream of a Misano-style weekend of him.
“The weekend was different because we only found it dry on Sunday when we arrived blind in the race. The fact is, as I said, it is taking too long to find the right level of competitiveness, and so we need to understand why. I am a driver who needs to make some adjustments. In Valencia I will have to try to accelerate the pace, even if I remain confident about tomorrow’s race. “
On this subject, Luca Marini pointed out the limited resources in the team some time ago.
“We can do better, even if I don’t yet know what to change for 2022. As for next year, I’ll think about it and work on myself. “
One final consideration was Casey Stoner.
“Unfortunately he is in the official Ducati garage this weekend, although I was able to speak to him yesterday. I hope to see him again today because I have so many things to ask him.