The Ducati Lenovo Team comes out victorious in the sprint race for the Monster Energy British Grand Prix with Enea Bastianini, who scores his maiden win in the Saturday encounter. Francesco Bagnaia’s race came to an early end as he crashed out of fourth place at turn four.
Bastianini made the most of the front-row start as he moved up to second place during the opening lap. The rider #23 stayed on Jorge Martín’s tail until lap six, when in his second attempt he managed to overtake his opponent at the “Stowe” corner and then created a small margin on his fellow Ducati rider. Enea crossed the finish line with a one-second lead as he took his first race win of the season – as well as his maiden sprint race gold medal – while also moving up to third place in the championship standings.
After a good start, which saw him taking the lead entering turn one, Bagnaia then lost three positions and was forced to chase the leading trio. After setting the fastest lap of the race in the fourth lap, the reigning world champion crashed out – uninjured – at turn four. Despite the tumble, Bagnaia still leads the championship standings, albeit with only a one-point margin over Martín.
The 20-lap, tenth Sunday race of the season will get underway tomorrow at 13:00 local time (GMT +1).
Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 1st
“I’m happy because the feeling with the bike has been excellent since yesterday, so I knew I could do well today. I didn’t expect the win because Jorge (Martín) had an incredible pace, but some little details allowed us to make the difference. It’s wonderful to be back on the top step of the podium, even though the real race is tomorrow so we mustn’t let the guard down if we want to aim at a repeating the same type of performance. In any case, I’ve been chasing this win for long this year: today came the first win of the season and the first-ever for me in a sprint race, so we can’t complain!”
Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – DNF
“I got a good start to the race but then I couldn’t lift the bike up at turn one, so three riders got past me. I struggled a little bit with the rear-end feeling in the first two laps, then I managed to get up to speed and to bridge the gap with the leading riders. Our potential is really high, but unfortunately, I went in turn four a little too early and the front tucked. The race pace was incredible: I could have qualified tenth with my quickest lap of the race. It’s a shame, because I was feeling comfortable and I think I could have overtaken Aleix (Espargaró) at either turn six or turn 15, and then eventually battle for the win. Unfortunately, I crashed and it was my mistake, but to know that allows me to turn the page and move forward with the same level of confidence in our chances.”
