Enea Bastianini is at a loss to explain his disappointing pace in the MotoGP Malaysian Gr🅺and Prix and is “angry” at being unable to fight for victory.

The Sepang circuit proved to be Bastianini’s best of a difficult 2023 campaign as he took his only grand prix victory of the yea🌳r.

That form had many predicting him to be a factor in the win battle this year, but it failed to materialise, as Bastianini struggled to get on terms with fellow G🌟P24 riders Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin.

Qualifying sixth, Bastianini could do no more than a distant third - finishing 10.484s behind team-mate Bagnaia - in the grand prix and felt he was “lucky” to have Marc Marquez crash out of the podium in fron🎃t of him.

“No, I’m not very satisfied because I fought a lot withꩵ the bike all the weekend,” he said on Sunday.

“We sta꧙rted on a good foot, but after we lost something. I was confident to resolve that problem for this morning, but nothing changed.

“🍃I’m lucky today in the race because Marquez crashed, but for the r🌠est nothing is positive.”

Bastianini says he struggled for mid🌠-corner speed, but doesn’t reall🌊y know why.

“I don’t know,” he replied🔥 when asked what was causing his pace woes.

“I was slow in the middle of the corner, I was without corner speed because every time I make something different, if I enter much faster compared to💝 the lap before, it🥀 was impossible.

“Today it was impossible for me to giv෴e 100%. I am angry.”

With Marc Marquez remounting from his crash to finish 12th, Bastianini is now a point behind him in their battle for third in theꦏ standings.

Looking to the final round, Bastianin✤i jokeജd that team-mate Bagnaia “can help me” in that battle in response to questions about supporting the reigning champion’s title defence.

“I think I can help Pecco,꧃ and Pecco - if he wants꧑ - he can help me,” Bastianini beamed.

“It depends on the🎀 starting grid, it depends on the weekend, if Jorge 𓂃does good stuff that weekend.

“Pecco is very competitive the same, he did a fantastic job. I think 24 points for him will be not easy 🅠to close, and Jorge has to do a big mistake.

“But I think to be honest it will be hard, but probably it’s more simple f൲or me because I have only one point to close the gap [to Marquez].”