‘Nervous’ Enea Bastianini thinks KTM Tech3 have a ‘problem’ despite fixing his ‘main fault’ with their MotoGP bike

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Enea Bastianini gained a lot of confidence from his performance at the Grand Prix of the Americas but thinks KTM Tech3 still need to resolve ‘one of the worst problems’.

The 27-year-old enjoyed his best weekend yet for KTM Tech3 at the Circuit of the Americas last time out. Bastianini bagged a P7 finish in the Americas GP to be the best-placed rider on a KTM RC16 with Maverick Vinales the next-best down in P14 a year after he won for Aprilia.

Achieving seventh place in the feature race marked a big turnaround for Bastianini in Austin, having only been 17th in qualifying as the slowest KTM rider. The Italian also sealed just P13 in the Sprint Race as the lowest-placed KTM ace who finished the event after Vinales retired.

Enea Bastianini feels KTM Tech3 have a ‘stability’ problem despite his strong Americas GP

Bastianini’s previous-best result at Tech3 since KTM gave the Rimini native a works contract for the 2025 MotoGP season after his release by Ducati was P9 on debut in the Grand Prix of Thailand. He could not back the result up in round two with P17 in the Argentina Grand Prix.

Works KTM duo Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder retiring at COTA, plus his Ducati replacement Marc Marquez crashing in the lead of the Americas GP, also aided Bastianini’s result. But the Italian also found a good rhythm on his RC16 in Austin to show his trademark late-race pace.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Enea Bastianini from net worth to career stats

Bastianini believes KTM Tech3 also fixed his ‘main fault’ with the RC16 after the Sprint Race, having solved his vibration problems. Yet he still started the Americas GP last Sunday riding ‘nervous’ as KTM Tech3 must improve the stability of his RC16 for Bastianini to push sooner.

“We solved the vibration problem,” Bastianini said, via quotes by Motorsport.com. “It was the main fault of the bike. One of the worst problems was stability.

“I was very nervous, and it was difficult for me to attack. That also happened to me [in the Americas GP] but only at the beginning of the race. It improved as the tyre wore down.”

Enea Bastianini was only 0.958s from being the best non-Ducati at the Americas GP

Bastianini overcoming his early nervousness to push in the Americas GP saw the KTM Tech3 ace finish the race 0.577 seconds behind works Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi for P6. He was even only 0.958s behind Pramac Yamaha rider Jack Miller to be the best-ranked non-Ducati.

READ MORE: Everything to know about KTM Tech3 including the MotoGP team’s riders

However, the Italian was still 12.815s behind Francesco Bagnaia as his old Ducati teammate won his first Grand Prix this season. That deficit reinforced the mood from the other half of the Tech3 garage as Vinales will ‘get frustrated’ speaking about KTM’s unlikely hopes to win.

Still, Bastianini will take a lot of positives from feeling progress on his RC16 in Texas. His P13 at Termas in round two left Neil Hodgson ‘quite sad’ after seeing Bastianini’s body language. The Rimini native should now look more confident when he goes to the Grand Prix of Qatar.