Ducati Sporting Club UK > News Items > Ducati Press Releases > Seventh position at the finish line for Enea Bastianini and the Ducati Lenovo Team in MotorLand Aragón’s sprint race. Francesco Bagnaia is ninth

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MotoGP | Round 12 - Aragon GP 2024 | Saturday 31 August 2024

Seventh position at the finish line for Enea Bastianini and the Ducati Lenovo Team in MotorLand Aragón’s sprint race. Francesco Bagnaia is ninth

• Marc Márquez secures his maiden race win aboard Team Gresini Racing MotoGP’s Ducati, ahead of Jorge Martín (Pramac Racing Team)

The Ducati Lenovo Team has partaken today in the twelfth sprint race of the 2024 season at Spain’s MotorLand Aragón. Enea Bastianini was seventh at the chequered flag after a comeback from row five, while Francesco Bagnaia coud not finish higher than ninth from third place on the grid.

Bastianini had a good start from fourteenth place as he made his way back to eleventh in the opening corners before dropping down to fifteenth. Lap after lap, Enea managed to settle into a competitive rhythm aboard his Ducati machine as he climbed his way to the top ten before making a double overtake on Quartararo and his teammate Bagnaia with four laps left – as he was among the quickest riders on track in the late stages of the encounter.

Bagnaia’s race took a wrong turn already at the start: the reigning world champion was forced to take a different line from third place on the grid to avoid the part of the main straight that was still dirty due to the overnight rain (as it off the ideal line). After losing some ground, Pecco did well in returning to fourth place in the opening laps, but the lack of feeling with the front tyre led him to a few mistakes and forced him to ride defensively up to the chequered flag.

The 23-lap, Sunday race for the Aragón Grand Prix will get underway tomorrow at 14:00 local time (GMT +2).

Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 7th
“It was a complicated day as I had no feeling, especially with the front-end, in the morning, while the grip at the rear-end was incredible. The situation was quite critical: we tried to change the set-up a little bit, I even tried to tweak my riding style, but it wasn’t enough. Things went smoother in the race as track conditions improved and we found an adjustment that helped me a little; I managed to make up several positions and to finish seventh, which doesn’t make us happy, but in light of the situation I think we have to be happy with the result. Shouldn’t it rain tonight, I think things may improve some more tomorrow.”

Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 9th
“The issue we encountered yesterday unfortunately returned this afternoon and there was very little we could do as a team. These things happen, unfortunately, and it had been a while since it last happened to us. The start was a difficult one but after last night’s rain, the track conditions in that spot were not ideal; I managed to not lose too much ground but as soon as I got to turn five, I immediately understood that something wasn’t right, and then things kept getting worse. It was a tough race because I was struggling on both corner entry and mid-corner and I was lapping really slow. I believe that, realistically, I could have battled with Martín, as Marc (Márquez) seems to be able to make the difference on all of us in three areas of the track. We’ll try to understand what to do for tomorrow and let’s hope things will go differently.”