I would have paid good money for Dorna to have attached a heart rate monitor to Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali on Sunday. Two weeks ago, interviewed immediately after the Misano race, Domenicali opined that Enea Bastianini’s attempted last-lap attack on championship leader and factory Ducati man Pecco Bagnaia was “too risky”.
On that occasion Bastianini tried to sling his Desmosedici GP21 past Bagnaia’s GP22 but at the last moment thought better of it, his bike kicking this way and that as he fought to maintain control. You can imagine the scenes in the Ducati garage if Bastianini had taken out Bagnaia, especially because the pair will be factory team-mates from next year.
Therefore you might have expected Bastianini to follow Bagnaia at a safe distance yesterday, protecting his countryman’s championship advantages, and giving his bosses a comfortable Sunday afternoon’s entertainment. Especially following the dramatic lap-one exit of championship leader Fabio Quartararo, the second time this year the Frenchman has been taken out by another rider.
A victory bonus is always MUCH bigger than a podium bonus
But that’s not Enea ‘Push like a bastard’ Bastianini’s style, is it?
They always say that the first rider you must beat is your team-mate and that maxim held true yesterday because, since the ink was dried on Bastianini’s factory contract, he is in effect Bagnaia’s team-mate so he’s already working to establish himself as the top man in the factory garage. Plus Bastianini just wanted to win, because that’s what he is programmed to do. Plus a victory bonus – from your team and your various other sponsors – is always MUCH bigger than a podium bonus. Six figures bigger.
Bastianini closes for the kill on Bagnaia. The youngster still has a shot at the championship
Ducati
Both times he closed up on Bagnaia’s rear wheel to make a pass – on lap eight and in the final few laps – Domenicali’s heart rate must’ve been on the rev-limiter and the same for the main men in the factory garage: chief engineer Gigi Dall’Igna, sporting director Paolo Ciabatti and team manager Davide Tardozzi, who didn’t look too impressed that an indie rider had beaten his factory rider, even though it gave Ducati its third consecutive constructors’ world championship.
Of course, Bagnaia had known that 20 points would be very nearly as good as 25 ever since he had seen Quartararo’s scary exit as the Ducati rider passed one of Aragon’s big screens during the first lap. He wanted to win, but there was no need to get desperate about it, especially after he had a few front-end warnings during the final laps, as Bastianini closed for the kill.
Bastianini’s fourth victory of the year – to Bagnaia’s six and Quartararo’s three – moved him to within 48 points of the championship lead, with five races and 125 points remaining. Surely too steep a hill to climb but worth having a go anyway, so he won’t yield to Bagnaia next Sunday at Motegi, nor the week after at Buriram in Thailand.
“Enea has a mathematical chance of winning the title, so why not try?” says his veteran personal manager Carlo Pernat, who previously managed Max Biaggi, Loris Capirossi, Andrea Iannone and others. “Strange things happen in racing, like today with Quartararo. Pecco is so strong that it will very, very difficult to better him on points but at this moment Enea has something more inside when it comes to overtaking.
“For me, Pecco is a Biaggi, a better Biaggi, while Enea is similar to Casey Stoner. He’s so fast and he can make the kind of overtakes that Casey used to make – very difficult but very clear – and other people cannot make these overtakes.”
Ducati celebrates a hat-trick of constructors titles – note absence of engineer Dall’Igna, too busy creating his next tech tricks
Ducati
“His overtakes at Aragon were beautiful, but the overtake at Misano was so difficult. After that race I replied to Domenicali on Italian TV. If I had been Domenicali I would only have said this, ‘Amazing race, we finished first and second with our 2023 factory riders and thanks to Luca Marini for overtaking Quartararo’. Nothing more.
“Maybe at the final two races, depending on the points ranking, Enea will think about Bagnaia and the championship, but at the next races, no. The opposite! The goal now is to get as many points as possible. Forty-eight points is maybe an impossible gap, but why not dream? Why not?! So if Enea can win, he will try to win 100%.
“This is also good for the fans who watch the races. Overtaking is beautiful and fun to watch. Otherwise the fans won’t enjoy MotoGP and they will be sleeping. We need this kind of racing.”