di Giannantonio hints at “mistakes” after “bittersweet” Qatar MotoGP lap record

Fabio di Giannantonio felt “bittersweet” emotions after leading Friday's MotoGP Practice in Qatar.

The VR46 Ducati rider has struggled with a mystifying lack of top speed from his factory-spec GP26 in recent rounds.

di Giannantonio began the Qatar weekend with third place in FP1, after fitting a new front tyre for his final run, but was still well off Marc Marquez's pace on used rubber.

However, the Italian and his VR46 team then appeared to make a breakthrough in the afternoon.

Diggia was fastest on five occasions during the hour, culminating in a new lap record of 1m 50.406s.

Nevertheless, the top-speed issue remains, with the 2023 Qatar winner still only 12th fastest through the speed trap, 5.5km/h slower than Iker Lecuona's sister GP26.

Instead, his Friday progress appeared to come from braking and corner entry, with Diggia hinting at possible set-up ‘mistakes’ in recent rounds after “a few changes” made the difference.

“Bittersweet feeling, honestly,” di Giannantonio told MotoGP.com.

“Super happy for the end of the day, super happy for the lap, super happy for the feeling.

“[But a] bittersweet feeling because we saw that we could have done some mistakes here and there in the last GPs.

“As you can see from this morning, like my pace was clearly off the pace, two seconds off Marc and a lot of people. And then suddenly we came back with a great feeling.

“So let's focus on what's positive. We did a really good job in the afternoon, so at the end it's been a good day.”

Aprilia's Marco Bezzecchi appeared to be the rider to beat for race pace on Friday, but di Giannantonio remains confident:

“I never struggle here for race pace, I think we have a good bike [for that], and I've always been a good manager of the tyres.

“But, first of all, we need to do a proper qualifying.”

Title leader Marc Marquez made it a Ducati one-two at the top of Friday's timesheets, with Bezzecchi in third.