The Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli was packed to capacity on Sunday, with a record-breaking crowd coming to the Adriatic coast to watch the 14th race of the MotoGP™ season. 

Conditions were hotter than at any point during the weekend when the 27-lap race kicked off at 14:00 (UTC+2), with the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team-mates racing in temperatures of 27 degrees. 

It was a tricky start to the outing for Bastianini, who failed to make up any ground in the early laps. But as the fuel load lessened, ‘La Bestia’ came into his own, and started a spirited recovery.

Overtakes on Brad Binder, Espargaró and Johann Zarco had seen him enter the top ten by the ninth lap. Further passes on Fabio Quartararo and Luca Marini came on lap 14 and 26 respectively. The Italian then posted his fastest lap – and the sixth quickest of the race – on the final circuit to close to within 0.3s of Fabio Di Giannantonio in seventh. 

Espargaró enjoyed a competitive opening to the race and was contesting the top ten places early on. But the Spaniard soon started to feel the strain around one of the most physical tracks on the calendar and couldn’t maintain his early pace. Despite this the KTM reserve rider, who is replacing Maverick Viñales for the third straight round, came home in 14th place.

The Red Bull KTM Tech3 have just a few days to rest before travelling to the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix, which runs from September 18-20.

Enea Bastianini: “Our weekends have been quite similar recently. On Friday we go fast but I don’t find the same feelings on the bike on Saturday. I hope we can understand this after this weekend because I felt really competitive today. At the start of the race, I had a lot of movements with the front tyre and I felt really on the limit but, it improved lap-by-lap. I could start turning with the rear and get on the gas earlier. This helped me to make some nice passes. When I was alone, I was fast. On my last lap I did a 1’31.2. I’m not surprised about that because I can do that at the end of the race when I have confidence and support from the front. We need to study the data because the difference between the start and end of the race was big here. Also, sometimes we’re right up there, sometimes we’re far down the timesheets. We need to find a solution for this.”

Pol Espargaró: “I’m very, very tired! The last eight laps were too much for me. If it was another race like the Sprint, I would’ve been OK. But after the Sprint distance today, I started to struggle with my right arm, with my back, and I couldn’t ride the bike as I wanted. I feel I’m more tired than I should be, but I’m an old man at 35 years of age! I’m happy with my weekend overall. I was fast over one lap and also in the Sprint race. Yesterday I was really competitive, and was riding with Brad (Binder) and Enea. But from then on, I have struggled with the conditions and knowing how to ride the bike.”

Nicolas Goyon, Team Manager: “Well, clearly the positive point of this race weekend for the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team is, once again, Enea Bastianini's strong performance in the main race. Starting from P16 and finishing in eighth position is something really positive. I really want to congratulate Enea, he had a strong race. There were a few crashes, but even so, Enea rode at a strong pace. He kept improving his lap times throughout the race and, once again, he was the rider who gained the most positions.

“When we looked at the live timing sheets, Enea had the sixth-fastest lap of the race, which means the bike clearly has good potential. We know that, but we need to put everything together to build a stronger weekend, starting from Qualifying. We also need a bit of luck on Friday to be able to go directly into Q2. But all in all, it was a really good weekend. Thank you, Enea, for this weekend, and we need to carry on like that.

“On the other side of the garage, another thank you goes to Pol. It was another good weekend, he didn't make any mistakes and managed to maintain a good pace throughout. However, he struggled in the final third of the race when his lap times dropped quite dramatically. In the end, it was P14 and we take those two points to help build our position in the Teams' Championship. Thank you to the whole team for their hard work. Now we're going to pack everything up and head to Spielberg for next week's race.”