ENEA Bastianini’s victory in the season opening Grand Prix of Qatar two weeks ago was the first win for Gresini since Bastianini’s teammate, Fabio Di Giannantonio, won the Moto2 Spanish Grand Prix last year. In the premier class, Gresini’s winless run stretched back to Estoril 2006 when Toni Elias famously beat Valentino Rossi and Kenny Roberts Junior in the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Being the season opener, the points from Qatar determine precisely the championship positions coming into round two in Indonesia - the first Indonesian Grand Prix since 1997 - which means that Bastianini leads the Riders’ Championship. This is the first time a rider for Gresini has led the points standings of a MotoGP World Championship since Sete Gibernau led after the Catalan Grand Prix of 2004.
Ahead of the Indonesian Grand Prix, Bastianini said, “I cannot wait to get to Indonesia. We’re coming from an incredible race in Qatar, where I claimed my first win.”
He continued, “They should have finished resurfacing some parts of the track, so I don’t know what to expect. Even [the] tyres will be different compared to testing, but we have to continue working in the same way we have been doing up until now.”
Bastianini’s teammate, Di Giannantonio, suffered from gastroenteritis the last time MotoGP were in Indonesia for the test. Since then, he has had chance to recover from the illness, and take part in his first premier class Grand Prix in Qatar, where he finished 17th, 0.242 seconds behind Remy Gardner who took the final point of the night.
“I’m getting to Indonesia with a bit more experience on how to manage the race, but obviously we’re still in the early stages of our journey: we want to learn, and we also want to do it with the right timeframe,” Di Giannantonio said in anticipation of his second premier class Grand Prix. He added, “The goal is to keep improving bit by bit, and we can do it at Mandalika.”
