Fabio Di Giannantonio achieved tenth place in the Portuguese MotoGP, but was dissatisfied with the result. The Pertamina Enduro VR46 rider believes he could have gone further, being closer to the top five, had it not been for a mistake made just before the race.
The Italian told the press that he was encouraged and optimistic after the warm-up: ‘In the warm-up, I was happy with the progress we made with the bike – the bike setup was really good. So we planned to make a good recovery in the race. We thought finishing near the top five would be possible, something like sixth or seventh place, because the pace was there and the feeling too’.
However, according to Di Giannantonio, an error conditioned his entire performance: ‘After a small mistake before the race. When we started the race, of course I didn’t know, but at the end of the race I knew. After three laps it was not possible to attack harder than I was attacking. It was really difficult to attack and I had to just stay calm and finish the race. My race was practically over from the beginning‘.
The #49 then said: ‘Even if it’s never good to say, it’s true, and I’m glad no one got hurt, we were lucky that some riders fell, so we stayed in the top ten. But I believe it’s not what we deserved with our potential in the warm-up‘.
Prompted to elaborate on the error, Di Giannantonio replied: ‘It was just a small mistake, unfortunately this small mistake costs a lot in MotoGP, so it was not possible to recover in the race‘
