British MotoGP “might be the race” where Bastianini “clicks” on the KTM

Enea Bastianini returns to the scene of a dominant 2024 British MotoGP double with hope rather than expectation aboard his new Tech3 KTM.

Bastianini swept to both Sprint and Grand Prix victories as a factory Ducati rider last season, making him the only repeat winner in recent Silverstone history - although technically, ten different riders have won the last ten premier-class Grands Prix.

The Italian won again last season at Misano and narrowly lost out to Marc Marquez for third in the world championship, in a season of nine Sunday podiums.

But now riding KTM machinery, Bastianini has struggled to break into the front-running positions, with his best result so far a seventh place at COTA.

He also arrives at Silverstone with the added handicap of a long lap penalty for contact that left Francesco Bagnaia on the ground at Le Mans.

"Le Mans was crazy for sure, but despite all the penalties, we managed to show decent pace in the race and score points,” said Bastianini, who finished the chaotic French GP in 13th.

“The asphalt was very slippery, but it was critical for everybody and, checking my speed on track, it was super good… Johann was much faster, but I was close to [the lap times] of Marc and Fermin.”

Sunday at the French GP saw Bastianini penalised no less than three times.

The first was a double long lap due to a sighting lap bike swap. Then two more long laps for speeding in pit lane after switching to his wet bike. Despite a second crash, he eventually salvaged three points... then was handed a post-race long lap penalty for Silverstone for the earlier Bagnaia incident.

“Silverstone might be where he could click on the bike"

While the long lap will be an added obstacle, team manager Nicolas Goyon hopes Bastianini’s past Silverstone form can help him finally ‘click’ with the KTM package.

“Silverstone might be the race where he could click on the bike, because he loves it, as he showed it in 2024 winning both sprint and race,” said Goyon. 

“Unfortunately, he will have to serve a long lap penalty during the race, but I am sure that it will give him extra motivation to perform in the UK."

Bastianini said: “Now we are focused on Silverstone, a track that I really enjoy, and where I am normally fast, so it will be interesting to see how the KTM behaves on this track.

“We have a long lap penalty to serve in the race, it’s not ideal, but let’s focus on doing a good job from Friday and getting a better spot on the grid ahead of our penalty.”

Team-mate Maverick Vinales has emerged as the most consistent KTM challenger in recent races, including a double top-five at Le Mans.

Factory riders Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder seem to have moved to the Vinales-style set-up, while Bastianini has continued running the larger rear seat unit ‘salad box’.