How ‘El Diablo’ and ‘the Beast’ starred in MotoGP’s Misano contest

The Devil and the Beast step onto a MotoGP podium. It could be the start of a joke, but it’s exactly the scenario which occurred last Sunday at Misano as Fabio ‘El Diablo’ Quartararo and Enea Bastianini – affectionately known as ‘Bestia’, or ‘the Beast’ – trailed home factory Ducati’s in-form winner Francesco Bagnaia.

Taking nothing away from Bagnaia’s masterful management of his soft rear Michelin tyre to fend off a medium-shod Quartararo in a tense battle for victory, the Ducati rider was very much expected to be strong at Misano.

His strength in both wet and dry conditions across the Misano weekend shrouded the event in an air of significance, as Sunday was poised to be a massive day in the destiny of the 2021 world championship.

Quartararo was a miserable 18th in the fully wet FP2 on the Friday, leading him to pray as hard as he could (or perhaps take a visit to the crossroads…) for the clouds to stay away. With half an hour to go until race time, it looked like his prayers went unheeded as the paddock began to feel the ominous spits from the clouds. Mercifully for the Yamaha rider, the rain stayed away.

But he had other problems. Bagnaia nailed his launch, dumping his clutch at the precise moments the lights went out – leading to debate on social media over whether it was in fact a jump-start. Bagnaia proceeded to execute plan A. Ducati knew the soft tyre would drop with 10 laps to go, so Bagnaia had to pull his finger out to build a gap to manage come that point.

He did just that, opening up a lead of 1.095 seconds by the end of lap one. Quartararo, meanwhile, was overtaken by the sister factory team GP21 of Jack Miller and soon had Pramac’s Jorge Martin coming through. It revealed an obvious problem for Quartararo – he stands alone in his title fight.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“When I saw Pecco leaving, [I was] fighting with Jack, fighting with Martin, I only saw red,” Quartararo said. “It was not easy because to overtake a Yamaha with a Yamaha, it’s one thing. We have more or less the same acceleration, but when you have different bikes… like, I was catching Pecco in sector one and sector four, but as soon as I was behind him in sector one he was pulling away in sector two and sector three.

“It’s not only about the engine, because in Turns 11, 12, 13 Pecco was much better than everyone, and this is not about power. It was a little like [he was] going away, [and I was] catching, going away, catching. And it’s true that maybe a little bit more support from Yamaha, not technically but from the riders [would help].”

"It’s the first time I’m that happy for a second place – not because the championship, but because I gave everything. In the beginning with Jack, with Martin, I was fighting against them like it was the last lap" Fabio Quartararo

Quartararo cleared Martin again on lap three and was offered respite when the Pramac rider crashed at the Carro hairpin. But a mistake while following Miller on lap eight at Turn 13, where he nearly lost the front and ran wide, gave Bagnaia a further second to his lead – opening it up to 2.3s. Ultimately, it would hinder Quartararo’s quest for victory as it delayed his eventual charge up to the back of the leader in the latter stages.

He had enough in hand to fend off the charging Bastianini storming up from 12th, his lap times virtually identical to Bagnaia’s in the mid-high 1m32s bracket. Therefore, his push to close down Bagnaia could almost be seen as unnecessary when you consider what’s at stake. Coming into the race, his championship lead was down to 53 points after a suspected tyre issue dropped him to eighth at Aragon.

But Quartararo’s decision to challenge Bagnaia for victory is perhaps the true genius of the Yamaha rider in 2021: he is not weighed down by thoughts of what might happen, he is only focused on what’s immediately in front of him – in this case, a victory and one which would still prove significant in the grand scheme of things.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“I think it’s my best, to be honest,” Quartararo said of his Misano race. “Of course, a victory is totally different, but I think it’s the first time I’m that happy for a second place – not because about the championship, but because I gave everything. Also, in the beginning with Jack, with Martin, I was fighting against them like it was the last lap.

“Today to be honest I had three four moments where I was close to being on the ground. One moment with Jack, where he went wide, I went wide too. I lost the front totally, so Pecco took a big advantage. But yeah, when I was trying to follow Pecco at Turn 2, Turn 3, Turn 13 I was full on the limit, and honestly, it’s like this that I’m enjoying to ride.”

Unable to pass a Bagnaia too quick out of the corners and too fast through the sequence of right-handers at Turns 11, 12 and 13, Quartararo came away with a second that has seen his points lead whittled down to 48 with just 100 more up for grabs in 2021. Given how the afternoon could have gone given the threat of rain, it’s damage limitation of the highest order. But also proved Quartararo’s resilience, bouncing back from a disappointing Aragon to claim a podium – doing similar after tough Spanish, Catalan and Styrian GPs earlier in the year.

At one point, the fight for victory looked like it would be a three-way affair. Having carved his way to fourth in the first six laps, Bastianini on a two-year-old Avintia Ducati was setting the timing screens ablaze.

When Bastianini came past Miller for third on lap 19, he’d just set three-successive fastest laps. The reigning Moto2 world champion has shown flashes of speed in his debut season aboard the ageing Ducati, but it was the seven day stretch from Aragon to Misano that really showed off the true potential of ‘the Beast’.

Enea Bastianini, Esponsorama Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Finishing a strong sixth at Aragon, Bastianini completed the podium for the first time in his rookie season. Though team-mate Luca Marini scored a fifth in the madness of the Austrian GP, Bastianini has only been beaten by him on two occasions this season. This is a trend familiar to Bastianini, who proved to adapt to Moto2 machinery in his debut season in 2019 much quicker than Marini did – Bastianini scoring a podium in his debut campaign, while Marini took two seasons to reach the same feat.

Bastianini’s podium at Misano also bucked conventional wisdom about the GP19, which doesn’t turn – or at least shouldn’t – anywhere near as well as the GP21. But, according to Marc Marquez, who was pushed over his limit chasing Bastianini, the Italian isn’t doing anything special on the two-year-old Ducati – he’s just doing it correctly.

"I have changed my style the last three races. I’m more soft in all the movements when I’m riding. I’ve seen the data of Pecco and Jack, it’s a different bike but the DNA is similar. Now I’m more relaxed when I’m riding the bike" Enea Bastianini

“In one part of the race I was following him and we were catching [Fabio] Quartararo and the top guys,” Marquez said when asked by Autosport what he thought of the rookie’s performance. “But then I saw I was over my limit and I said, ‘Cool down, let him go’. But he was riding very good.

“He understands the Ducati a lot, the way to ride, he was braking late and exiting the corner with a lot of torque and a lot of grip. So, nothing special, but he was doing everything in the correct way. So, when you do this in MotoGP the lap time arrives.”

Bastianini admitted his podium was “unexpected” as his pace ahead of the race didn’t suggest such a challenge, while noting that his step forward is a recent revelation of a change in riding style to better manage the nuances of the GP19.

“I have changed my style the last three races,” Bastianini said. “Also I’m more soft in all the movements when I’m riding. I’ve seen the data of Pecco and also Jack, it’s a different bike but the DNA is similar. Now I’m more relaxed when I’m riding the bike.

Enea Bastianini, Esponsorama Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“The MotoGP is very different to Moto2, and it’s not easy to be very comfortable on the bike. But when you understand some movements on the bike, you can be more soft and more relaxed. And after it’s more easy, and now my bike is very nice. I have some [wobble] in some tracks, but I have to modify again a little bit my style. But, race by race I know more what I have to do.”

Given Bastianini’s form, and based on history, one has to wonder if Ducati has made a mistake in guaranteeing the fifth and final factory Desmosedici for 2022 to Marini and VR46 instead of Gresini-bound Bastianini?

What is clear is Ducati’s decision to bank on youth in 2022 is paying off handsomely. Bagnaia is fulfilling the pre-season potential which threatened great things this year, while the likes of Martin and Bastianini are simply creating more dread for Ducati’s rivals for the years to come.

Misano’s podium trio of Bagnaia, Quartararo and Bastianini sure doesn’t give off the impression that it’s a one-time deal…

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing, Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Enea Bastianini, Esponsorama Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images