Enea Bastianini was the best rider from the factory Ducati team in the practice session for the MotoGP Thailand GP. He finished in third place, just ahead of his teammate Francesco Bagnaia and behind Marc Márquez (Gresini/Ducati) and Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati).
The Italian analyzed this first day in Buriram: ‘To be honest, I didn’t push a lot at the beginning of the session, but at the end I was in the top six. I tried another option for the second run, and it didn’t work as well as I expected, and we came back for the time attack. And we improved a bit for the time attack. I also suffered a bit with the front used [tyre], and the feeling was very strange. But at the end, with the new one in the front, it was much better, and it was possible to push more ending the session in third’.
Braking is an aspect where Bastianini is currently struggling, and he believes that if he improves, he could try to win this Saturday: ‘Compared to other riders, I missed a bit the braking point, because I can’t brake very, very hard, as the other Ducati riders. I’m locking a lot the front, but this situation has happened many times in my career. But sometimes we can find the solution, and I hope to find the solution for tomorrow. If we can find the solution and improve, we are competitive to try to win’.
When asked how he could resolve the braking issues, «Bestia» replied: ‘Probably by getting more feedback from the front wheel, because today the feedback was good, but not the best: it moved a lot, and when I checked the data, I saw that many times my front locking was the double compared to other riders. I don’t know why this is happening. But, for the rest, I’m confident about being fast’.