Enea Bastianini admits “complicated” Sprint despite Sepang MotoGP Test progress

Enea Bastianini slashed one-second from his lap time relative to last October’s Malaysian MotoGP qualifying during the Sepang test.

Qualifying was the Tech3 KTM rider’s Achillies’ heel for much of 2025, with a best grid position of fourth, worst of 21st and average of just 16th.

The multiple Ducati race winner managed to make one rostrum appearance each in a Sprint and Grand Prix, but the Saturday morning deficit was often too big to overcome.

As such, team manager Nicolas Goyon saw Bastianini’s eleventh place on the combined timesheets - 0.8s from leader Alex Marquez but less than 0.2s behind the top KTM of Pedro Acosta - as a promising result.

It also marked a solid start for Bastianini’s new partnership with crew chief Andres Madrid, formerly alongside Brad Binder at the factory team.

"For Enea, one of the main targets was to build some confidence with his new crew chief, Andreas, and this has very clearly been done,” said Tech3 team manager Nicolas Goyon.

“They’ve worked hard over the last three days, completing over 120 laps and working through the entire programme.

“We’ve made some adjustments to his position on the bike and he’s now feeling really comfortable and in control - which was another key aim for us this week.

“We are pleased that we can walk away from this week with another item crossed off our list. He finishes the test in P11, which is already big step forward compared to last year.”

Bastianini, who set a best lap time of 1m 57.290s, said of the test: “I can be happy because it has been positive for me. We started with a lot of work on the ergonomics of the bike, then yesterday a bit of setup, and today some back-to-back with the aerodynamics.

“We kept a lot of positive things and I'm satisfied, to be honest. But we still need to close the gap from the rider in front of us. Because we are fast, but we saw some ‘56s today and for us that was too difficult.”

However, a larger gap emerged during the Sprint simulation, both to Acosta and the leading Ducatis

“We're missing, I think, turning,” Bastianini revealed. “Turning is one of the keys to make a good lap time. 

"And also, during the Sprint simulation, from my side it has been complicated, because I had a small problem with the rear tyre, but not [because of] the rear tyre.

“I had a lot of vibration… We have solved a bit the problem, but one of the things is also the front chatter. Today, for the first time, it happened, and after three or four laps it's a bit complicated. But, compared to last year, it's still much better.”

The final pre-season test takes place at Buriram on February 21-22.