Despite sealing a double victory at the British Grand Prix last weekend, Enea Bastianni does not consider himself a tough contender for the 2024 MotoGP title. The factory Ducati rider produced his greatest performance of the year, winning both the sprint and the main race at Silverstone, handily outpacing teammate Francesco Bagnaia and Pramac opponent Jorge Martin.

The result moved 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 available in the second half of the season. However, the Italian does not believe he will compete for the championship this year since he lacks the consistency needed to make a sustained title assault.

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. 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, said the Italian racer, who has now won six Grand Prix in his MotoGP career.

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, Bastianni asserted.

Counting solely the Grand Prix, Martin finished on the podium in all but one race, the Americas GP in April. Bagnaia’s journey is similar, as he finished fifth in Austin but has been on the podium at every other event where he has seen the chequered flag. Bastianini, on the other side, had only four podium finishes in nine races until his first victory of the year at Silverstone.

Bagnaia, on the other hand, believes his teammate can still make it a three-way fight for the 2024 title, citing his victory in Britain as motivation in the next ten rounds of the year. He was always in the fight. He just needs to be more constant and this result can give him the motivation to always be at this level, said the two-time champion. Normally, he will be fighting for the championship until the last races. He is very fast and we always have to think about him in the title battle, he added.