{"id":520550,"date":"2026-03-05T15:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/520550\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T15:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:26:15","slug":"mystery-shaking-issue-strikes-ktm-rider-at-thai-motogp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/520550\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery shaking issue strikes KTM rider at Thai MotoGP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Enea Bastianini was left battling a mysterious instability problem during the Thai MotoGP season opener.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/red-bull-ktm-tech3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tech3 KTM<\/a> rider still managed to salvage points with 12th place, making him the only rider from the squad to score during Tech3&#8217;s first race weekend in its post-Herve Poncharal era.<\/p>\n<p>However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/973238\/enea-bastianini\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bastianini <\/a>said a shaking issue on the straights made the race especially difficult.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe race has been complicated because the movements on the straight were difficult to manage, and sometimes when we put fifth gear the bike was very shaking,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat problem has been happening since yesterday and we cannot explain that. But that problem aside, I think we have improved a little bit compared to yesterday&#8217;s race, but not too much, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>A repeat of last year\u2019s qualifying struggles left the Italian starting 20th on the grid, but his tyre management allowed him to climb through the field.<\/p>\n<p>Bastianini snatched 12th place from rookie Diogo Moreira on the penultimate lap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy tyre situation at the end was not so bad, just the last two laps it dropped a lot and was spinning on the straight, but I think less compared to the others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is my characteristic and I think I saved a bit the race, because I&#8217;ve improved also my position in the last five laps.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ktm-lap-times-thai-motogp.png\"   type=\"image\/png\" alt=\"KTM lap times during the 2026 Thai MotoGP vs Aprilia race winner Marco Bezzecchi.\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.76\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>KTM lap times during the 2026 Thai MotoGP vs Aprilia race winner Marco Bezzecchi.<\/p>\n<p> \u00a9\u00a0Peter McLaren<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Despite the late recovery, Bastianini crossed the line 23.386s behind race winner Marco Bezzecchi and 18 seconds adrift of KTM\u2019s runner-up Pedro Acosta.<\/p>\n<p>Even with retirements for Marc Marquez and Joan Mir, the Italian still finished three places lower than at the same race last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The time gap] on the track is similar to last year. But last year, at the end, the result was better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year it\u2019s worse. I cannot be really happy about my job at the moment, because my expectation was higher compared to last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we need to change something in our work, because I can&#8217;t be satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Team-mate Maverick Vinales endured an even worse <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MotoGP<\/a> weekend, finishing outside the points in 19th and 16th places, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enea Bastianini was left battling a mysterious instability problem during the Thai MotoGP season opener. The Tech3 KTM&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520551,"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-520550","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\/520550","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=520550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}