Assen revives Bastianini: meanwhile, the KTM clause expires; the future is already written

Not the results he dreams of, but at the TT Circuit he was back fighting for good positions: now the rider from Rimini can also sign for his new future adventure.

An encouraging weekend for Enea Bastianini at Assen. Starting from 11th on the grid, he finished eighth in the sprint race, ending up very close to the Ducati pair Marquez-Bagnaia and to fifth-placed Jorge Martin. On Sunday, he crossed the line seventh and was then promoted to P6 because Marc touched the green on the last lap. In doing so, he equaled his best Sunday result in the 2026 MotoGP championship: he had also finished sixth in Austin.

The rider from Romagna would like to fight for the podium every weekend, but at the TT Circuit Aprilia had the upper hand, and the very fact he battled with the Ducatis represents a step forward for him. If his KTM had had better acceleration, he might have finished even further ahead. It’s also worth noting that he has scored points in three consecutive sprints (eighth at Balaton, seventh at Brno, eighth at Assen), something that had never happened since he started riding the RC16. We’ll see if he can confirm himself at the next GP at the Sachsenring (July 10–12).

Some of the changes made to the bike worked, although Bastianini points out that it might have been better to fit the soft rear tire rather than the medium: "It was a positive weekend for us, the most solid of the year. In the end I’m happy because we fought for something good and we weren’t very far from fourth place. All weekend the top three were on another planet, but we were very close in the fight just behind them. We made improvements to the bike’s turning, but I was missing a bit of feeling under braking. Also, in the end the feeling with the medium wasn’t great. The soft would have suited my riding style better and I was losing a bit on the exit of the fast corners."

Even though he regretted not mounting the soft tire, the KTM Tech3 rider is overall satisfied with how his MotoGP race at Assen went. Acceleration out of corners is a problem that didn’t start at the TT Circuit weekend; Pedro Acosta has repeatedly emphasized that Ducati and Aprilia are superior in that very important aspect as well.

With the Dutch Grand Prix over and Germany up next, on June 30 the clause allowing KTM to renew Bastianini’s contract for another year expired (the same clause applied to Vinales). Despite Guenther Steiner’s esteem for him, the rider from Rimini had already made it known that he did not want to stay with the Tech3 team and he wasn’t held back. The option was not exercised and he is now free to sign with the Trackhouse team.

In 2027 and 2028 he will ride an Aprilia, his third different bike in four years: after the Ducati Desmosedici GP and the KTM RC16, he will move to the RS-GP. In the American squad he will line up alongside Raul Fernandez, who has now reached an agreement for a two-year extension. Bastianini will be the third Italian rider to race an Aprilia, since the factory team will feature the Bezzecchi-Bagnaia duo. We’ll see if racing the Noale bike will give him more satisfaction than he found with the Austrian one.