The Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team secures a Top10 at the French GP with mixed conditions thanks to Fabio Di Giannantonio’s eight place. Franco Morbidelli is 15th after a crash.
The rain made the French GP chaotic and the race was tricky because of the track conditions and the strategies. The Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team ended the Le Mans weekend with both riders scoring points, Fabio Di Giannantonio was 8th and Franco Morbidelli was 15th.
Started from 17th on the grid, Di Giannantonio mantained focused and he made a recovery to claim 8th place at the chequered flag. With two bike swaps and many battles, Fabio secured the Top10 in a very tough race. The #49 rider holds on in fifth position in the World Standings with 74 points.
Tricky race for Morbidelli, who started from 9th, but he crashed when it started raining just before coming back to the pit and swapping the bike for the second time. He came back on track and he finished the race in 15th. Franco showed a good pace on the wet, and he was one of the three fastest riders on track. With his point, the #21 rider remains fourth in the World Standings with 85 points.
The Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team is back to action in two weeks for the British Grand Prix, at Silverstone from the 23rd to the 25th May.
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
“We tried to go with the slick, but the first part of the race was clearly wet. We where there in the first laps, then I saw some crashes in front of me, so I lost a lot of time. When everybody stopped, I was too far and I did one more lap. I think that was my mistake that didn’t allow me to achieve the Top5 today. With the wet tyres, I struggled at the beginning, by then it was better and better and I had a decent pace. I’m super happy with the result thinking about how the weekend has been. We recovered some points to the guys in front. It seems we found a base setup, so we are going to Silverstone with positive feelings.”
FRANCO MORBIDELLI
“The race was crazy! I had a decent start, and then I was with the top group trying to control what was going on. Then when I decided to to change the bike because it was raining too much, I ended up on the ground. I struggled to bring back the bike to the pit, when I did it, I went back with the rain tyres and fought my life for getting one point. We managed to do this and that’s a nice feeling to get that point after such a messy race. We struggled quite a lot during the weekend, but we were able to get back to a decent speed on wet conditions. We will need to start in a better way to reach sooner our maximum performance. In Silverstone I hope in a good weather, our speed is there and we’re confident.”
PABLO NIETO
“It was a tough weekend, especially because we lost the direction a little bit. But we are confident since we have a good bike, an excellent team and two great riders. We conquered a point with Morbidelli after a crash in a strange Sunday, and we got the 8th place thanks to Di Giannantonio, it’s not a bad result following his start from the 17th position. We still miss something, but I am confident we are back to the top at Silverstone.”
