“Proud” Fabio di Giannantonio: “Massive change worked” in Malaysian MotoGP

Fabio di Giannantonio says he’s “really proud” of how he and his VR46 Ducati crew salvaged their Malaysian MotoGP weekend after making a radical set-up change, the kind, he admitted, “you never do for the race.”

Fresh from a podium at Phillip Island, di Giannantonio struggled to replicate that form at Sepang, dropping from eighth on the grid to tenth in Saturday’s Sprint.

But on Sunday, a bold overnight shake-up transformed his feelings on the GP25.

“I'm really, really proud of how we ended the weekend,” said the Italian. “Because honestly, the potential was not there.

“But we did a massive change on the bike, on the setup. The kind that you never do for the race. But it really worked, and it was a much, much better feeling.”

Although Diggia slipped to tenth in the early laps, the improvement quickly showed.

“I was able to push in the front, to attack, to do some strong braking,” he said. “I was picking up the pace and also reaching top five. At the end, I was not that far with Quartararo.”

Still, di Giannantonio lamented that it had taken until Sunday afternoon to unlock the potential that had been missing all weekend.

“I’m so happy and proud of the team, of this ‘choice’. It's just a pity that when the conditions change [at a different track] we start pretty far with the setup. We took too much time to arrive on the setup where you could fight for a great position. Apart from this, I'm happy.”

With all riders choosing the soft rear tyre in Malaysia’s extreme heat, Diggia said the 20-lap race was “a proper workout.”

“You really have to control the exit of the corner, how you position yourself on the bike,” he explained. “My tyre never stopped spinning in any gear along the straight.”

Team-mate Franco Morbidelli, on the year-old GP24, finished fourth to reclaim sixth in the world championship, by just one point over di Giannantonio.