The twelfth Grand Prix of the 2024 season has drawn to a close for the Ducati Lenovo Team, with Enea Bastianini who put together a good comeback to fifth place at the MotorLand Aragón Circuit. Francesco Bagnaia was the unfortunate protagonist of a crash triggered by a coming together with Alex Márquez in the closing stages of the encounter, while battling for third.
From fourteenth place on the grid, Bastianini moved up to tenth place in the opening laps as he found himself in a group battling for eighth place. Due to the not-ideal conditions of the track, not as clean outside of the racing line, the Ducati Lenovo Team rider did not manage to get the better of his opponents at the beginning. In the second half of the race, however, Enea got up to speed aboard his Ducati machine #23 as he made up several position, the last of which on Morbidelli with five laps to go, before crossing the line in fifth place.
Bagnaia once again had a difficult time at the start – from third place – with some clear spinning of his rear wheel (on dirty asphalt) that cost him several positions. Pecco did a great job in addressing the lack of grip with the front tyre and as the race progressed, he made his way back to fourth place. With six laps left, the reigning world champion tried to take advantage of a mistake by Alex Márquez at turn 12. Unfortunately, a coming together led to a severe crash for both riders, from which Pecco escaped with a few bruises but luckily without any fracture.
At the end of the twelfth Grand Prix of the season, Bagnaia is now second in the championship standings with 276 points and 23 points shy of Martín. Bastianini drops down to fourth place, 71 points in arrears of the leader. Ducati leads the manufacturers’ championship with 426 points, with the Ducati Lenovo Team still leading the team standings (504 points).
The Ducati Lenovo Team will be back in action this Friday at the Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’ for the thirteenth Grand Prix of 2024.
Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 5th
“I’m not happy because it was a very difficult race, maybe the toughest of the season and surely the opening day had a significant impact on my chances to do well. I had the speed, but it was hard to put all the pieces together: I tried to overtake on many occasions, but often enough things didn’t go according to plan, as I ended up going wide and making mistakes. The track was really dirty outside the racing line and that made everything a lot more difficult. It’s really a shame, because I think we could have got more out of this weekend, but we must be content with this fifth place.”
Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – DNF
“I took advantage of Alex going wide to get ahead of him and also dove into the next corner with a slightly wider line knowing there was another rider; therefore, it’s a shame that it ended up this way as it had already been a difficult weekend. After another complicated start – due to the tricky conditions of that spot on the grid – I was putting together a good comeback, and I was a lot quicker. Right now, I’m quite in pain, especially in my left shoulder, but it looks like there’s nothing broken. We’ll do our best to be as fit as possible at Misano.”
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