“A bee got into my helmet” - Ducati star misses front row at Le Mans MotoGP

Fabio di Giannantonio had an unwanted passenger during Le Mans MotoGP qualifying, when a bee flew into his helmet.

The VR46 rider was involved in some on-track games with Marc Marquez over who would lead the other during qualifying, then was unintentionally impeded by eventual pole sitter Pecco Bagnaia.

Bagnaia was placed under investigation but later cleared by the FIM Stewards.

However, di Giannantonio's biggest issue was that his best lap had been blighted by a bee in his helmet.

“Unfortunately, I’m not very happy. The goal was to start from the front row and, of course, we wanted the pole position," he said.

“But, in my time attack, a bee got into my helmet, and I struggled to complete a perfect lap.

“In the last attempt, I tried until the end, but it was too late because the tyres were finished."

That left Ducati’s leading rider in the world championship to start from fourth on the grid.

“The positive thing is that we are fast, we start from the second row and we will fight in the Sprint.

“I will have to recover a little bit, all the riders in front are fast, so I suppose the race will be very fast.”

di Giannantonio will be chasing his second Sprint podium of the season in this afternoon’s race, which starts at 3pm local time (2pm UK).

The Aprilia duo of Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin, the only riders currently ahead of di Giannantonio in the world championship standings, will start from third and eighth places respectively.