Fabio Di Giannantonio admits that he is a little too cautious at the start of his races, and that this penalizes him when trying to move up.
Fabio DiGiannantonio His Grand Prix races are starting to look the same, and the Portuguese Grand Prix was no exception. The Italian rider has the speed, but loses time on Friday and can't seem to put everything together in qualifying on Saturday. The result: despite a solid race paceHe can rarely compete for a podium finish.
This Sunday, the scenario repeated itself. Qualifying ninth, he was bumped on the first lap and plummeted to 14th position. On a circuit as demanding as Portimão, you need nerves of steel in the first few corners, and By Giannantonio acknowledges that he is not prepared to do anything to make his place among others.
“I was unlucky at the start of the race. My start itself was good, but then in the first few corners I got stuck in the middle of the other drivers and couldn't find the right line. It continued in the following corners and the situation worsened. It was a series of things that relegated me to 14th place.”, he explained.
“Honestly, I don’t have the guts to go kamikaze on the first lap. Obviously, I try to position myself as best as possible to be at the front, but you have to survive. We reach 300 km/h at the end of the straight, and there are 200 kg rigs between the bike and the rider. If you dive into someone in those conditions, it hurts. I prefer to make clean maneuvers.”
Since then, Fabio DiGiannantonio He began his comeback and crossed the finish line in eighth place, after overtaking Johann Zarco on the penultimate lap. A commendable performance, but one that clearly didn't satisfy him, given his initial starting position and the pace that had allowed him to climb back into the top five the previous day. In the Italian's eyes, the major problem lies in the constant changes to his Ducati, requiring him to regain his confidence each time.
"The race was great, I had a good pace and made a lot of overtakes, but eighth place is the best I could achieve. I can't say I'm happy; the performance was there, but the team and I want more."he said.
“This year we changed the bike many times. We worked closely with Ducati to exploit its maximum potential. But when you make a mistake with something new, sometimes you lose that ability to immediately be flat out on a fast lap. To set a record on a circuit, every time, confidence and feeling have to be at their peak, but even if you have the best bike, you need to ride several times with the settings. When you try a lot of new things, the positive is that you can improve right away, and the negative is that you're never at your maximum.”
Results of the 2025 MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix :
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
