{"id":349994,"date":"2025-12-15T17:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/349994\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T17:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:39:07","slug":"ktm-motogp-rider-cant-explain-why-they-cant-use-soft-rear-tyre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/349994\/","title":{"rendered":"KTM MotoGP rider \u201ccan\u2019t explain why\u201d they can\u2019t use soft rear tyre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Enea Bastianini says he \u201ccan\u2019t explain why\u201d he struggles to use the soft rear tyre on his KTM MotoGP bike, after a year of struggles in qualifying for the Tech3 rider.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian moved to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/red-bull-ktm-tech3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">KTM<\/a> stable for the 2025 season following four years on Ducati machinery, during which time he won seven grands prix.<\/p>\n<p>But from pre-season testing this year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/973238\/enea-bastianini\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Enea Bastianini<\/a> struggled to adapt to the RC16, particularly when using soft rubber on the rear.<\/p>\n<p>This was particularly noticeable in qualifying, with Bastianini only making Q2 four times in 2025 and cracking the top 10 on just three occasions.<\/p>\n<p>Unsurprisingly, when he qualified well, Bastianini scored his best results of the season, with sprint podium at Brno and a third in the Catalan Grand Prix the highlight.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>He ended the season 14th in the standings on 112 points.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe trend is this: Friday is complicated, Saturday a bit less and Sunday in the race we are competitive,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut also, we are competitive because in the race with the medium tyre, I find the confidence to be fast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the soft, the bike gives me the opposite: no confidence, I can\u2019t push.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will be important to stop for two months to reset and try to find something for next year.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be honest, it\u2019s like the rear pushes me out in every corner, and it\u2019s much more complicated to turn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the medium, it\u2019s much better for me to slide the rear, I\u2019m more confident, and lap by lap I\u2019m more confident. This happens every time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MotoGP<\/a>\u2019s packed weekend schedule forces riders to be on qualifying pace by Friday afternoon, though Bastianini believes the current format has provided its uses for him in understanding his bike.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes the sprint has helped me to be fast on Sunday, because if we analyse, during the warm-up many times I\u2019m fast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s always the same when we use the tyre of the race.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we use the tyre of the sprint, the soft, I\u2019m always behind and trying to do something different on the bike.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut checking the video, I\u2019m not relaxed, it\u2019s not my style, and I can\u2019t explain why.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enea Bastianini says he \u201ccan\u2019t explain why\u201d he struggles to use the soft rear tyre on his KTM&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,101326,806,805,803,804,26895,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-349994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-enea-bastianini","11":"tag-motor","12":"tag-motor-sports","13":"tag-motosport","14":"tag-motosports","15":"tag-red-bull-ktm-tech3","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}