BMW M Award: Enea Bastianini best qualifier so far / MotoGP

In the current MotoGP season, BMW has also announced “M Prize” as the official car supplier for the World Championship. In addition to the three main categories – Driver – Manufacturer – Team World Championship as well as the independent rating of the best guest as well as the award for the most successful individual team and driver, the M Award rewards the best driver in the qualifying sessions.

The situation is surprising in the still young season of 2024. Because after three Grand Prix events, Enea Bastianini is at the top of the table. The lead is the result of third place at the opening round, pole position at Portimao and fifth place on the grid at the final race in the United States. It has reached 52 points.

Aprilia driver Maverick Vinales and Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Ducati), who leads the Drivers’ championship, are tied on points and are only one point behind (51). Again with the number of points (37), rookie Acosta and world champion Bagnaia, who won the special classification, follow fourth and fifth.

A separate evaluation of the best performance in the training sessions certainly makes sense for the purposes of the World Drivers’ Championship. Because in each of the last three years, the new MotoGP world champion has also been the winner of the M Award. In 2023 and 2022, Francesco Bagnaia took the powerful BMW to his garage at home. In 2021 he was world champion Fabio Quartararo. However, the Frenchman also won the special classification a year earlier, when the world champion was named Joan Mir after a very good season.

What is more interesting is that Enea Bastianini started the season very well in training sessions. Initially, “La Bestia” was considered a below-average screening. With 57 points for the season, the Italian finished an abysmal 15th in 2023. Although Bastianini missed four GP weekends due to an injury in the opening round in Portugal, even when in good form he managed just one start from the grid of the front last year (third place in Malaysia).

Ducati factory rider Lenovo has changed his priorities and, without question, he worked on himself. Bastianini implements what everyone knows: You can’t win the World Cup and beat Jorge Martin completely by starting in the third or fourth row. His solid performance in practice and the race confirms that the #23 is taking the race against Jorge Martin for the position next to Pecco Bagnaia very seriously.

There is no question, the importance of the BMW M Prize table after the Grand Prix can be controlled, but it certainly says that Enea Bastianini in his current state has all the tools at hand to successfully defend his status as a professional driver.