Enea Bastianini was one of the riders who went below the official Sepang record on the second day of testing, and was even the fastest. In the last minutes of the day, the Ducati man clocked a 1m57.134s to beat Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati) by 0.139s.
The Italian summed up his day’s work: ‘This morning we worked a bit on the aerodynamics and setup, also because at the beginning it was on the agenda to attack the stopwatch, but a small problem prevented me from doing so. In the afternoon, I also tried to do some fast laps, but it was too hot and I preferred to continue with the tuning. I tried the new aerodynamics and also a new exhaust. I think we worked well‘.
Just before the end, Bastianini was able to do a fast lap, emphasizing that it was important: ‘In the end, it was important for me to attack the stopwatch because I remember my situation. I always felt it for a week and now it’s important to be fast in lap time. I’m happy with this, but also with the overall team work‘.
Asked about his thoughts on the new fairing, #23 “approved it”: ‘It’s not bad. I think it’s a good step for us – for me and for Pecco [Bagnaia] is fine; for Jorge [Martín] probably because he has a different style he doesn’t like it as much. But I think for me, in 80 percent of the track, it’s better compared to the old one. I did the lap time with the new fairing and also with the new exhaust. We had to adjust the first touch on the throttle a little bit again because it’s a bit strange, but other than that, the 2024 bike is really good‘.