Bastianini was in despair on his home circuit: “It’s always the same!”

Eighth place in Sunday’s San Marino race was a solid result for Enea Bastianini. This made the Tech3 rider the second-fastest rider on a KTM at the MotoGP event in Misano. However, Pedro Acosta demonstrated just what was possible with the RC16 by securing a podium finish and setting the second-fastest lap of the race. For the local hero from Rimini, such a result on his home turf was out of reach at every stage, primarily due to his grid position.

‘La Bestia’ started from 16th on the grid in both the Sprint and Grand Prix races. On Saturday, he improved by just one place; in the race itself, he managed to break into the top 10, albeit aided by retirements. The 28-year-old is well aware that this is not the first time this has happened: “It’s always the same. On Fridays we’re quick on the bike and it feels good in free practice too. But we’ve seen it so often before: we just can’t recapture that feeling on Saturday in qualifying and in the sprint race.”

Willkommen zum Rennen in San Marino

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Marc Márquez

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Pedro Acosta

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Fans

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Fabio Di Giannantonio

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Start des Rennens

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Alex Márquez und Jorge Martin

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Fabio Quartararo

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Luca Marini

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Fermin Aldeguer

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Enea Bastianini

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Jorge Martin

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Marc Márquez

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Pedro Acosta und Alex Márquez

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Fabio Di Gannantonio

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Raul Fernandez

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Marc Márquez gewinnt das Rennen

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Sieger Marc Márquez

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Alex Márquez, Marc Márquez, Pedro Acosta

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Sieger Marc Márquez

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Willkommen zum Rennen in San Marino

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In the race, the rider with start number 23 regularly takes longer to build up speed: “Towards the end of the race, I can make some headway if the tyre still offers me enough stability and I have confidence in the bike. It’s tricky at the start of the races, because that’s when the front wheel of the motorbike is more unstable. The longer the race goes on, the more I can use the rear tyre on corner entry. That helps me.” The Italian is hopeful of using the Misano Grand Prix as a blueprint for the rest of the season: “It was the race that went best for us from start to finish. That’s why I believe we can take more data from it that we can analyse.”

Bastianini has a potential solution to his problems in mind: “I have a clear idea of what we need to do.” However: “It’s not that easy to put into practice.” His motorbike reacts sensitively to changes: “The window in which our settings on the motorbike work is very narrow. And if we try to go beyond that, it ends in disaster.” On Sunday at Misano, Enea Bastianini hit that sweet spot: he set the sixth-fastest lap of the race, just three hundredths of a second slower than Aprilia’s frontrunner, Jorge Martin.

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MotoGP World Championship

18.09.2026 - 08:55

Eighth place helped Enea Bastianini reduce his deficit to HRC rider Luca Marini to 4 points in the World Championship standings. Now in 12th place with 92 points, he also has a 9-point lead over his team-mate Brad Binder.