Austrian Grand Prix poleman Enea Bastianini has explained the reason behind his early exit from the Red Bull Ring MotoGP event.
Bastianini dropped suddenly out of podium contention on the sixth lap, his year-old Gresini-run Ducati Desmosedici struggling with what first looked like a brake problem before it was eventually clarified as an issue with the front wheel.
There goes the pole man…
Enea Bastianini is having serious problems and runs his bike off the track.#AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/oXupSQmSgN
— MotoGP on BT Sport (@btsportmotogp) August 21, 2022
And the damage, Bastianini has now explained, was done the lap prior, between the high-speed right-handers Turn 9 and Turn 10.
“I went a little bit wide [out of Turn 9], and when I opened the throttle, I lost a little bit the rear, and the front wheel touched the kerb,” Bastianini explained.
“And I broke the wheel. And the pressures went low, and it finished my race.
“When I braked in the first sector, every time the front was crazy to ride. And arriving into Turn 4, I went straight [on].”
Bastianini was battling Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin for third place at the time, having yielded the lead to eventual race winner Francesco Bagnaia off the line and then been passed by Bagnaia’s works Ducati team-mate Jack Miller.
However, that would not have necessarily meant his victory aspirations were over – with Bastianini renowned for coming on strong in second half of MotoGP races.
“It was good for me,” Bastianini said of his race before the kerb strike. “I was really confident of doing a good race.
“I think the best choice of the tyre was my one, but we don’t know this – because only me, I put the soft [front], soft [rear] of the leading group.
“We know that we made a really good weekend from FP1. Always better, always more [speed, session by session].”
LAST LAP! 🔄@88jorgemartin throws away a possible podium! 💥#AustrianGP 🇦🇹 pic.twitter.com/vajLETAUPX
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 21, 2022
Bastianini’s 2023 Ducati factory seat rival Martin saw his podium bid end with a Turn 1 crash on the final lap, which relegated him to an eventual 10th.
And while Bagnaia’s 2023 team-mate was due to be announced before the next round at Misano, it’s hard to see how the Red Bull Ring weekend could have offered a conclusive answer one way or another to Ducati.
“I don’t know how is my future,” said Bastianini, who will race for Pramac Ducati next year if he misses out on the works seat.
“We will see, before or later than Misano, I don’t know. We have to continue like this grand prix.”
