Enea Bastinaini says he “wasn’t confident” of scoring a podium in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix following the “most difficult weekend of my life.”
The Avintia rider qualified only 16th following a trio of crashes on Saturday after struggling for speed in the mixed-conditions that plagued the first two days of the event, while team-mate Luca Marini stormed to a front-row starting spot.
With Sunday’s race taking part in bright and sunny conditions the reigning Moto2 world champion soon began to make his way back through the field, the Italian once again enjoying sublime tyre wear in the latter stages as he carved through to fourth as the final lap began, just behind Fabio Quartararo as he looked to score the his second rostrum in three contests.
Bastianini stalked the world champion across the last tour until he finally fired down the inside of the Yamaha with a bold move at Turn 14, an overtake he was able to make stick as he took the chequered flag in third position.
The now two-time premier class rostrum finisher felt “incredible” to recover to the podium following his “disaster” of a Saturday.
“This weekend has been the most difficult of my life because I had three crashes in eight laps on Saturday, it was a disaster,” explained Bastianini.
“Today though has been a fantastic day, with the cold weather it was really different from Misano 1, but the last half of the race I was fast and the pace was really nice so it was possible to recover some positions and then I saw it was possible to get on the podium.
“I pushed as hard as I could, and then on the last lap I could overtake Fabio (Quartararo) so it was a nice for me and for him because he’s world champion, so congratulations to him because he did a very good season.”
Bastianini admitted he “wasn’t confident” that a repeat Misano podium result would be possible prior to the contest, though conceded a relatively high number of crashes from riders ahead-including title contender Francesco Bagnaia-helped his cause.
“I wasn’t confident to arrive on the podium today, I was a bit lucky because some riders crashed but I also did a lot of overtaking with (Alex) Rins, (Johann) Zarco, (Brad) Binder, (Iker) Lecuona and (Danilo) Petrucci so it was incredible,” added Bastianini.
“Fabio could be third place today because he was really fast and also on the last lap, I thought ‘wow this will be difficult to recover the gap’ but in the end I managed to get him and then Pecco (Bagnaia) did a good race but he was unlucky because he put on the hard front which I think today wasn’t a good choice.”
