Enea Bastianini’s impr🔯essive form at last weekend’s Portuguese MotoGP have not allayed fear about his 2025 Ducati contract.

Ba𓃲stianini knows that his deal expires at the end of this year and his bike is the envy of the entire grid.

Pramac’s Jorge Martin and Gresini’s Marc Marquez are just two candidates who would love to ride the 🍷GP24 with th𒈔e developmental benefits that a factory status can earn a rider.

But Bastianini delivered a reminder of what he can do in Portimao by grabbing pole p♛osition.

He was then sixth in the sprint and second in the gr💎and prix.

“What I🌺 love is that he’s not lying down,” Neil 🌳Hodgson said on TNT Sports.

“He’s the forgotten man. People are saying ‘will he keep his ride in the factory te♕am?’

“Probably not. But he’s fighting.”

Bastianini exorcised the ghosts of 2023 when, on his Ducati debut, he broke a s꧅houlder in the first-ever sprint race at Portimao.

It scuppered any hope of🎉 a title challenge and has kept him on the back foot ever since.

Sylvain Guintoli reacted to his impressivℱe pole position last weekend: “It’s♑ funny that it’s happening here - the very place that, last year, his season began to unravel.

“Luca Marini made a small mi🧜stake and took him out.

“Unfortunately for Bastianini he 🏅broke his shoulder blade. It took him ages to come back.

“He wasn’t competitive. He didn’t🌄 like the fron💃t end feel of that Ducati last year.

“This year he’s coming back fighting.

“He knows that his contract is at stake. It💛 looks like he’s on form.”

It now feels a long time ago that, in 2022, Bastianini won the second-most grands prix 𒀰behind eventual champion Francesco Bagnaia.

ꩵThen with Gresini, Bastianini fought wheel-to-wheel with his future teammate Bagnaia in tﷺhe closing stages of that season.

He then earned th🌼e promotion into the factory team at Mart🌟in’s expense.

But his debut season was wrecked by injury, then an inab🅘ility to adjust to the new Ducati.

But Bastianini did win the Mala꧟ysian MotoGP at the end of last year, and remains in promising form after the first two rounds of 2024.