{"id":469597,"date":"2026-02-10T01:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T01:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/469597\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T01:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T01:52:09","slug":"enea-bastianini-admits-complicated-sprint-despite-sepang-motogp-test-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/469597\/","title":{"rendered":"Enea Bastianini admits \u201ccomplicated\u201d Sprint despite Sepang MotoGP Test progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enea Bastianini slashed one-second from his lap time relative to last October\u2019s Malaysian MotoGP qualifying during the Sepang test.<\/p>\n

Qualifying was the Tech3<\/a> KTM rider\u2019s Achillies\u2019 heel for much of 2025, with a best grid position of fourth, worst of 21st and average of just 16th.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

As such, team manager Nicolas Goyon saw Bastianini\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

It also marked a solid start for Bastianini\u2019s new partnership with crew chief Andres Madrid, formerly alongside Brad Binder at the factory team.<\/p>\n

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“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,\u201d said Tech3 team manager Nicolas Goyon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve worked hard over the last three days, completing over 120 laps and working through the entire programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made some adjustments to his position on the bike and he\u2019s now feeling really comfortable and in control – which was another key aim for us this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Enea <\/p>\n

Enea Bastianini, 2026 Sepang MotoGP Test (Gold&Goose).<\/p>\n

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Bastianini<\/a>, who set a best lap time of 1m 57.290s, said of the test: \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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 \u201856s today and for us that was too difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Enea <\/p>\n

Enea Bastianini’s Sprint simulation vs fastest, 2026 Sepang MotoGP Test.<\/p>\n

However, a larger gap emerged during the Sprint simulation, both to Acosta and the leading Ducatis<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re missing, I think, turning,\u201d Bastianini revealed. \u201cTurning is one of the keys to make a good lap time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a lot of vibration\u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final pre-season test takes place at Buriram on February 21-22.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enea Bastianini slashed one-second from his lap time relative to last October\u2019s Malaysian MotoGP qualifying during the Sepang…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,101326,6399,806,805,803,804,26895,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-469597","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-ktm","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-red-bull-ktm-tech3","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469597","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=469597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}