Coming into the 2022 MotoGP season, the newly independent Gresini Racing team and its 2021 rookie sensation rider Enea Bastianini knew they had one chance of really showing off their skills: a strong start to the season on an old bike while their rivals got up to speed.
And, with the 2020 Moto2 champion delivering an outstanding front row start for the Qatar Grand Prix, it looks like the potential hinted at in testing might well shine through.
Ending up second only to fellow Ducati rider (and the man who beat him to last year’s rookie of the year title) Jorge Martin, Bastianini’s performance is perhaps even better than Martin’s simply because qualifying has traditionally been the area where he’s struggled the most since making his MotoGP debut.
Able to carve his way through the field in style in 2021 despite often starting far back, the promise dangling in front of him now that he’ll start second is huge – something he’s keenly aware of.
“It will be a different race from the normal,” he admitted, “because normally every time I’m starting from behind and I have to recover some positions during the race, but not now.
“It’ll be a difficult race, but I have to save the tyres for the last laps. This is the most important thing. I’ll try to go on the podium, but I don’t know if we can do this.
“It’s the first time at the front – normally I have to recover a lot of positions.
“I don’t know if I have the potential, but I’ll try to win.
“The choice of the tyre will be so important, because the medium and the soft are so close, so we have to check the data more to understand which is better.
“I’m very happy for the second place, because I’ve worked a lot during the winter tests to arrive here in Qatar prepared.
“Last year with the 2019 bike it was so difficult for me to do a good time attack, but now with this bike it’s so easy.
“The power is more smooth, and with a soft tyre I can push very well. It’s nice, but with Suzuki, with Jorge [Martin], with Marc [Marquez], tomorrow will be a very hard race for me.”
While he might have been impressive in the latter races of 2021, there’s no doubting that there’s still work to be done for Bastianini on Sunday, with fellow front row qualifier Marquez stressing afterwards that he believes the fastest riders in terms of race pace aren’t the ones on the front row.
That’s something still to be figured out by Bastianini, he conceded – but is also an area where he’s going into Sunday’s 22-lap race with an open mind until he figures out what kind of battle they face and who they’re going to be up against.
“We have to understand the potential of the other bikes,” the Italian added. “For the moment, I remember last year that it wasn’t a very big group – and this year I think it will be more small, especially the last five or six laps.
“These will be crucial for some riders, but the most important thing is to always save the tyre a little bit, then we’ll see which bike is better in the last part of the race.
“Sometimes it’s easy for me to save the tyre until the end of the race, but it’ll be my first race with the 2021 bike and I don’t know how the race will be for me.
“The most important thing is to be concentrated and see what happens, because it’s only the first race and I have to understand how to manage starting from the front row. We’ll wait to see.”
Whatever happens on Sunday, his bosses are already more than delighted with their first step as a satellite team after Gresini Racing’s seven-year partnership with Aprilia concluded at the end of 2021.
Gresini is now once again truly independent for the first time since its days as a Honda satellite and looking to reclaim some of the ultra-competitive form of the team’s early days.
Senior team figure Carlo Merlini told The Race that his squad couldn’t have hoped for a better way to kick off the season – and even hinted that while Bastianini might be on an older spec of machine, there might even be reward ahead should he keep up this form.
“It is absolutely the perfect start to the season,” the team veteran told The Race.
“We did very well at the test, but we always played it a bit safe because a test is a test and a race is a race.
“All the way through the season, if we manage to build some consistency as we did here, then it’s definitely a good start.
“I don’t want to say anything more – I want to stay cool instead of getting overexcited, but it’s good to start from the front row.
“Last year, Enea as always struggling with the fast lap, always starting from the back of the grid, and then recovering positions as he did very well a few times, especially in the second half of the season.
“So let’s see what he can do when he starts from the front row, but all looks good.
“The 2021 bike has proven to be a very good bike, but I’ve got no doubts that the 2022 bike made by Ducati will be a good bike too, even if it takes a little time to fix a few things.
“Enea is also contracted by Ducati, though, so I’m sure that if he keeps doing well then [Ducati Corse boss] Gigi [Dall’Igna] will add some good stuff into his bike.”
