Fabio Di Giannantonio had a solid sprint race in Portugal but, as often happens, was penalized by his grid position.
Fabio DiGiannantonio attempted to rebuild foundations with his team for the Portuguese Grand Prix by rethinking their way of working on FridaysHe was right to do so, as he automatically advanced to Q2 yesterday and delivered a solid sprint race on Saturday. The only downside: his qualifying. As is often the case. He couldn't quite put everything together on a single timed lap and found himself at the back of Q2, around tenth place, with the added difficulty of having to gain positions during the races.
This time was no exception. The Italian rider qualified ninth and, as usual, managed to climb through the field, but inevitably losing time to his rivals. After a very good start that saw him gain three places, he remained stuck behind Francesco Bagnaia for half the race while trying to fend off attacks from Johann Zarco, Fermín Aldeguer, and Brad Binder. With five laps to go, he finally managed to overtake his compatriot and pull away, holding onto fifth position until the checkered flag.
“We made a change this morning, but the unstable weather conditions only allowed us to test it during qualifying. Not being satisfied, we reverted to the previous configuration for the sprint race because yesterday’s solution gave us a better bike.”, did he declare.
“I got off to a good start, I had a solid pace and I managed to close the gap to the leading group, although it was a bit too late because I lost quite a bit of time in the battles. Tomorrow, we'll try again and attempt to get even closer. The main race will offer us more opportunities. The choice of tires will be crucial: the soft tire is an option, but we'll see if it's possible to make it last until the end.”
Results of the sprint race of the Portuguese Grand Prix :
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
