Fabio di Giannantonio: “No excuses, I take responsibility”

Fabio di Giannantonio was unable to maintain the momentum from his front-running performance at the Sachsenring as he endured one of his toughest weekends of the season at the Czech MotoGP in Brno.

Just one week after leading the challenge behind Marc Marquez in Germany, before a second-half crash, di Giannantonio was never a contender over the three days in Brno.

The VR46 Ducati rider’s weekend began with 16th in a rain-hit Friday practice, followed by 13th in qualifying. 

A clutch issue at the start of Saturday’s Sprint dropped him down the order, before a “strange” front-end feeling led to a crash at mid-distance while outside the points.

There was little improvement in Sunday’s grand prix, with di Giannantonio slipping to 17th early on and making up just one spot, when Tech3 KTM’s Enea Bastianini fell. 

He finished 24.729s behind winner Marc Marquez and over 20s behind the other GP25 Ducati of Francesco Bagnaia in fourth.

Fabio di Giannantonio refuses to hide behind 'excuses'

“Definitely [a tough weekend],” di Giannantonio admitted. “Let’s get straight to the point. I don’t want to find excuses. For sure, my feeling with the bike was not fantastic. But I want to take all the responsibility because I think the rider is the leader of the team.

“I’ve been much more precise in my career than this weekend. Maybe it’s because of the conditions and everything, but I just want to say it’s my responsibility that we didn’t have the package to fight today and overall in the weekend.

“So a pity. But we have a lot of time now to regroup, refocus and work on ourselves.”

The Brno round was the fourth race in five weekends and the twelfth of the season, but the Italian refused to blame fatigue.

“I like to be objective and I never want to find things outside of my control,” he said. “All the other riders are in the same boat. So I have to be better than the others. And I haven’t done it.”

Asked if the front-end issues in the grand prix were similar to those that caused his Sprint crash, di Giannantonio said:

“Let’s say we had a bit of bad luck yesterday. It happened a particular thing, that I cannot say, but maybe it could have helped us to have done a proper Sprint, to understand better that we were in the wrong direction. But I had to sort it out a little earlier anyway.”

Despite the sharp contrast from his recent form - having finished in the top six in at least one race during the previous five rounds - di Giannantonio insisted the disappointing Czech showing hasn’t dented his confidence.

“It’s not that I’m not in top shape or something,” he said. “In a MotoGP weekend, you have to focus on many things - riding and giving feedback to the team. In today’s MotoGP, where a tenth makes the difference between 1st and 10th, you have to be really precise.

“We know what’s changed compared to Sachsenring. We know exactly what we have to do to restart the season. It’s just been an off weekend for me and for us.”

Looking ahead to the summer break, di Giannantonio said he’ll switch off and return refreshed at the Red Bull Ring in mid-August.

“I guess the good thing is that there is also life apart from racing,” he smiled. “I will enjoy the free time with my family. I want to go on holiday with my girlfriend. I want to visit my grandfather.

“So I will absolutely spend a really good break - and try to be the best Diggia possible for restarting the season.”

Team-mate Franco Morbidelli was sidelined from the Czech weekend due to a shoulder injury in Germany.

The VR46 duo have both now slipped behind Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi for fourth in the world championship, with ten rounds to go.