P11 for Bastianini at Japanese MotoGP™ as Acosta shows podium potential

Pedro Acosta, encouraged by his third Sprint podium medal of the season on Saturday but also curious to know if the medium tire compound would help or hinder his rally for more silverware, started with fierce intent and was into 2nd place in the opening exchanges. Brad Binder and Enea Bastiani had to be proactive in the first laps to make strides into points scoring positions. BB33 reached 13th and the Italian gave chase while Maverick Viñales was further back and trying to make inroads.

Acosta could not maintain his pace for the full 24-lap duration and a ‘moment’ while braking for Turn 1 put him off track and into the gravel. The Spaniard drifted down the race order and made it across the finish line in 17th. Bastianini forced his way up to 11th and was followed by Binder in 12th as the pair passed the checkered flag together. Viñales just missed out on Grand Prix points.

The Lombok island setting of the Mandalika Street Circuit will activate the Indonesian Grand Prix next weekend and another back-to-back fixture for 2025 MotoGP.

Enea Bastianini, 11th and 14th in the championship standings: “In general we can be happier than what we were yesterday, and we improved a bit the setup of the bike.From ten laps to go I improved my pace and I gave something more. This is a strange world. Sometimes, at some tracks, nothing works like what you want.I think we need to understand why and try to be competitive in every track. I hope to see us like 3-4 races in the past: competitive. I want to be back in the top five like a few races ago.”

Brad Binder, 12th and 11th in the championship standings: “A difficult weekend. I had a really good start but we had a lot of chatter from the beginning which made it difficult to ride the bike. The wheelspin when we were upright also finished the tire. Very tricky because I cannot take advantage of drive and corner entry is tough. If we can get to a circuit where we can lessen the chatter then we can do something; hopefully in Indonesia.”

Maverick Viñales, 16th and 16th in the championship standings: “A hard race for sure. Very tough but it was good to keep going. At a certain point I had quite a lot of pain but then I relaxed a little bit and it went away and I could push again in the last five-six laps. I think we made a good training for Mandalika and for the rest of the season but what I feel is that there is now a lot of work to do again on the bike because we are not pushing the tyres in the correct way.”

Pedro Acosta, 17th and 6th in the championship standings:“I knew it would be a tough race with the tire but I did not expect it to be that tough! I tried to pass for the lead in Turns 3 and 5 but couldn’t and then when I saw the rhythm I thought ‘OK, do your race and save the tyre’. I wasn’t pushing, which is hard for me! It is what it is. Now it is the moment to check the data with the team and check for some solutions. I was braking OK but didn’t have anything in Turn 1 at that moment, which was also strange. We’ll check and we’ll work.”

Aki Ajo, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “Aside from the Sprint podium finish it has been a disappointing weekend for us. Our performance is not at the level that we want and not as expected. We knew from 2024 that we could have a tirewear challenge here in Motegi but even in the race today with the harder option it was worse than we anticipated. It was tough to accept, especially when we were in a position at the start of the race to be on the podium. We need to deeply analyze why things happened this way for these grip conditions and for this track. In any case we have to look positively to Indonesia because five-six races ago we were making progress. We will reset and go again at Mandalika and focus again on the podium there.”

1. Francesco Bagnaia (ITA) Ducati 42:09.312

2. Marc Marquez (ESP) Ducati +4.196

3. Joan Mir (ESP) Honda +6.858

1. Marc Marquez (ESP) Ducati, 541 points

2. Alex Marquez (ESP) Ducati, 340

3. Francesco Bagnaia (ITA) Ducati, 274