Why Fabio Di Giannantonio “struggled to do the normal things” in Japanese MotoGP

Fabio Di Giannantonio was “struggling” with his physical condition in the Japanese MotoGP after crashing in the Sprint.

Di Giannantonio went down on the first lap of the Sprint at turn three when he was collected by Alex Marquez, who received a double long lap penalty.

The Italian admitted afterwards that he had expected to feel better on Sunday having had a night’s sleep, but in the end the pain reduced less than he’d hoped.

“Well, for sure I'm not in great conditions,” said Fabio Di Giannantonio after the Japanese MotoGP.

“I expected to be much better after the night, but for sure it was not. 

“I'm struggling a little bit to be free on the bike from this morning, especially on the right side where I got the hit. 

“Ribs still are not 100 per cent and I just struggled from this morning to be really natural on the bike. I was struggling a lot to do the normal things, so it has been a complicated day.”

Di Giannantonio added that the right side of his body in general was holding him back.

“The hip doesn't allow me to do a natural position and also the ribs,” the VR46 Racing Team rider said.

“At the end, when you bang the ribs, you always have a sort of knife pointed in all the day.”

The Italian is now in a race against time to try to be ready for the Indonesia race next week, so the focus now is on physically recovering in time for the home grand prix of the VR46 team’s title sponsor Pertamina.

“Try to recover as much as I can,” Di Giannantonio said when asked what his strategy is for the next few days before practice at Mandalika on Friday.

“For sure we always have a tight schedule with the flights and events and stuff, but we will try to do the maximum to arrive as close as possible to 100 per cent for Mandalika.”