AUSTRALIA AND MALAYSIA TO WRAP UP EXTRA-EUROPEAN LONG JOURNEY OF MOTOGP
Australia. The charm of this round is likely unmatched in the whole of the MotoGP calendar, and the two standard bearers of Team Gresini MotoGP will get to Philip Island in contrasting moods – albeit with the same great motivation for good results. Enea Bastianini will race to keep his title chances alive (he is 39 points in arrears of leader Quartararo) at a track he is yet to race on in the MotoGP class. Buriram teaches that nothing is impossible, even though so far the rider #23 has never finished higher than fifth (his top five result came in 2017 when he raced in the Moto3 class). Fabio Di Giannantonio, who was on the podium there in 2018 (second place), will try to leave behind the poor results of the last 4 outings and get back in the points.
Malaysia. The following event will take place at Sepang, where Bastianini has been on the podium twice already (both in Moto3) with a third place in 2017 and 2018. The talented Italian rider can count on a preseason test that was really impressive: in early February 2022, Bastianini topped the timesheets (1’58.131secs) while giving encouraging hints of what to come. This is, on the other hand, a challenging circuit for Fabio Di Giannantonio who had to sit out that test due to an illness and has a sixth as best result at Sepang, dating back to 2018.
Historic recurrences. In order to find Gresini Racing on the MotoGP podium at Phillip Island and Sepang we need to go back to 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007 seasons. In 2003, Sete Gibernau was second in Malaysia, while the following year he battled for the win down the wire with Rossi in Australia (2nd for only 0.097secs). The only win ‘down under’ was scored by Marco Melandri in 2006: the #33 dominated a race under the rain and crossed the line 10 seconds ahead of second place (Vermeulen). Melandri was also second in Malaysia the following year.
ENEA BASTIANINI #23 (4th in the championship standings with 180 points)
“We come from a complicated race, but a positive one nonetheless. Buriram’s sixth place under heavy rain kept our motivations very him. There are three crucial races ahead and the two back-to-back rounds in Australia and Malaysia will be surely interesting. It will be my first time at Phillip Island with a MotoGP bike so it’ll all be a discovery, while we know we can be fast at Sepang – the February test really gave us some positive indications.”
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #49 (20th in the championship standings with 23 points)
“The Thai weekend was surely something to forget, but there are still positive things we found on the bike and that I hope will help in the upcoming rounds. Phillip Island is the first on the list: a track where I’ve always been quick and one I like a lot; I hope I can put into practice what I learned at Buriram. Malaysia will be one of the most challenging races of the season: we have a little bit of reference from the test at the start of the year – we’ll have to use our head well and manage our energies properly.”
