Freight issues are currently plaguing preparations for the Argentinian Grand Prix and Gresini Racing’s Enea Bastianini is one of the riders hit hardest.

Despite leading the MotoGP Championship, Bastianini currently has barely more than team clothing in his possession, with the entire Gresini infrastructure stuck in transit en route from Mombasa due to technical issues with the cargo plane.

“Yes, for the moment I have nothing,” the Italian confirmed from the pre-event press conference on Thursday. “I haven’t the bike, I haven’t the box but we will see if arrive tomorrow. Will be hard, I think, for all the mechanics but I think Saturday we can be on track.”

With the final crates hopefully arriving at the Termas de Rio Hondo Circuit on Friday morning, some teams will have less than 24 hours to complete the set up and preparation work usually spread across two to three days. Track action has therefore been condensed with MotoGP’s free practice one set for 10:35 local time (14:35 BST) on Saturday with Q2 running just seven hours later.

“Tomorrow we will see what happens,” Bastianini said of the now compact two-day schedule. “I think you have to be more concentrated because there is a short time, session to session and also you can’t modify a lot the bike because we haven’t time. Is for me much more difficult to arrive at the perfect setup and it’s important to bring the best decision, the most early as possible.”

Having won Qatar’s opening race, Mandalika proved more of a challenge for the 24-year-old as the rains arrived half an hour before lights out.

“In Mandalika I did my first race with wet condition,” Bastianini confirmed. “The first part of the race stay a disaster for me but later I bring a lot of confidence with the bike and step by step I have recovered some gap from the group in front of me. At the end I was fast, I’m happy about my race, not about my result but now we are here in Argentina. I think we can be fast but I never try a MotoGP here, will be very hard race I think but we are ready.

“For me this ’21 bike can be fast also in this track,” he continued. “I think the grip will be not perfect, like in Mandalika or a little bit in Qatar, but I like this condition.

“I have to stay concentrated especially during the Saturday because it’s too long. Now we have one session more and it’s important to learn and to be fast in qualifying.”

Qatar’s success left Bastianini in charge of the 2022 standings, a position he still holds two races in but while the Gresini rider is confident of the Desmosedici at his disposal he’s remaining cautious of the season ahead.

“For the moment I’m happy to be the leader of the championship but the MotoGP World Championship, it’s too long,” he admitted. “We are only at the third race, we have to make the third race here in Argentina and my objective is to stay on the front five positions but for the moment is not my problem to understand what is my future.

“Now I have to understand better this bike, has a lot of potential. I think the ‘21 bike is incredible, also in respect to the ’19 and then we will see during this championship what we can do.”