San Marino MotoGP Sprint podium “not easy” for Fabio Di Giannantonio

Braking proved the biggest limitation for Fabio Di Giannantonio in the San Marino MotoGP Sprint, but he was able to deliver a podium.

Di Giannantonio started from the third row after a middling qualifying performance, but he bailed himself out with a “perfect start”, he explained.

“For sure, it’s not been easy,” Fabio Di Giannantonio began, speaking after the San Marino MotoGP Sprint.

“Starting from the third row, it’s not that easy to make a podium, or starting to think about achieving a podium because Misano is not that easy to overtake. 

“But I did a perfect start, I was already there just behind Fabio Quartararo, and I was trying to get a gap to overtake him. Then, unfortunately for him, he crashed. 

“Then it’s been tough at the end, because my pace was not the same as the first ones, because I was losing I think a tenth or something every lap, but it was enough to make the podium. 

“But then Franky [Franco Morbidelli] was pushing behind me and he was leaving me with just 0.3 seconds of gap every lap. So, it was not easy, and also, for my fault, we arrived to the race with not the perfect maps for the braking. 

“So, I did all the race, pretty much, trying to understand which map was better on braking, and I did also a little mistake at the end for this. 

“So, it was a tough one, but at the end we achieved it, so super-happy.”

Di Giannantonio said that he had made a change before the Sprint to try to help him in braking, but it didn’t work.

“For this, on braking we still have to work a little bit,” the VR46 Racing Team rider said.

“We did a little change that I asked for the Sprint, but I think we have to go backwards. 

“So, that was our weak point of the day, but I think for tomorrow we can improve a little bit on that area.”