Fabio di Giannantonio rues “missed opportunity” after pit lane start
A last-minute problem with his Ducati GP25 forced Fabio di Giannantonio into a pit lane start in the Hungarian MotoGP.
Fabio di Giannantonio’s hopes of repeating his Sprint podium vanished before the Hungarian MotoGP had even begun, with a technical issue forcing him to swap bikes and start from pit lane.
The Italian, who should have lined up third on the grid, suffered a power problem on his Desmosedici GP25 during the sighting lap.
Frantic work by his VR46 crew and Ducati engineers briefly raised hopes of a fix.
However, the fault reappeared on the warm-up lap, leaving di Giannantonio no choice but to switch to his second bike, fitted with different tyres, and start from the end of pit lane.
“Unfortunately, already on the [sighting] lap the bike was lacking power, and the Ducati technicians tried to analyse what was going on,” di Giannantonio said.
“And then we believed that everything was working. So we started, but then… I had the same issue on the warm-up lap.
“So I had to start from the pit lane with the second bike.
“It’s a shame, because even with the tyres – soft front and medium rear, which were for sure the wrong tyres! - we were still very fast and consistent.”
Despite being the only rider on a soft front, di Giannantonio set the ninth fastest lap of the race and fought through to claim the final point in 15th.
After losing 16 seconds on the opening lap, he eventually crossed the line 26.262s behind race winner Marc Marquez.
Removing the time deficit from the pit lane start would have put the Italian fourth, even though he planned to race with the opposite tyre selection: medium front and soft rear.
“It’s a missed opportunity, but we keep our heads high,” di Giannantonio added. “We had a great weekend, we did a good job, and we’re finally starting to understand this Desmosedici GP25.
“Yesterday we had a great qualifying and an amazing Sprint, it’s a pity about the race, but that’s racing. I’m proud of my team, they’re doing an excellent job. We have to be happy and take the positives.”
The result also means di Giannantonio slips from fifth to seventh in the MotoGP World Championship standings, behind KTM’s Pedro Acosta and VR46 team-mate Franco Morbidelli.
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