Factory Ducati rider Enea Bastianini says he doesn’t consider himself a contender in the 2024 MotoGP title battle despite scoring a double victory in the British Grand Prix last weekend.
Bastianini pulled off his best performance in years to win both the sprint and the main race at Silverstone, comfortably outgunning team-mate Francesco Bagnaia and Pramac rival Jorge Martin.
The result elevated him ahead of Gresini’s Marc Marquez and into third place in the title standings, just 49 points behind championship leader Martin with 370 points on offer in the second half of the campaign.
However, the Italian doesn’t think he will be fighting for the championship this year, as he feels he lacks the consistency required to mount a sustained title challenge.
“For the moment, I don't think I'm a title contender because Pecco and Jorge have demonstrated more constant [speed] compared to me in every race. These two riders are on top,” said the 26-year-old, who has now won six grands prix in his MotoGP career.
“With me, sometimes I felt something [lacking] or I'm behind [them on track]. If I want to be a title contender, I have to improve in that direction.
“[The Silverstone win] is a good point of start, but I want to continue like this for the rest of the championship. If at the end of the championship I have this opportunity, [then] let's see what happens.”
Martin and Bagnaia have indeed been more regularly running at the front than Bastianini in the opening half of the season.
Counting only the grands prix where he reached the finish, Martin stood on the podium in all but one race - the Americas GP in April. The story is similar for Bagnaia, who finished fifth at the Austin event but was on the rostrum at every other event where he saw the chequered flag.
Bastianini, on the other hand, managed just four podiums from nine races prior to his maiden victory of the year at Silverstone.
However, Bagnaia thinks his team-mate could still make it a three-way fight for the 2024 title, believing the success in Britain could spur him on in the final 10 rounds of the year.
“He was always in the fight,” said the two-time champion. “He just needs to be more constant and this result can give him the motivation to always be at this level.
“It's normal that he will be fighting for the championship until the last races. He is very fast, he is very good on used tyres. We always have to think about him [in the title battle].”
