The rider of the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team secures his sixth consecutive direct Q2 spot of the season in the first day of the Hungarian GP. Franco Morbidelli is twentieth.

In a blink of an eye, MotoGP is back on track for the Hungarian GP, which started with the usual Friday sessions. Once again, the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team secures a direct Q2 spot with Fabio Di Giannantonio, who is second at the end of the Practice. He goes directly to the crucial Qualifying session for the sixth consecutive time this year. It was a challenging day for Franco Morbidelli, who finished twentieth.

Busy Friday for Di Giannantonio, who started his weekend at Balaton Park Circuit with a Top5 in FP1. Fabio worked a lot on his Ducati Desmosedici GP, improving his best laptime in Practice. In the crucial afternoon session, the rider from Rome showed a good rhythm too, securing the direct Q2 with his 1’37”240 in the final stages.

A lot of work in Morbidelli’s garage too, and he was sixteenth at the end of FP1. In Practice, he improved his best laptime, despite his twentieth place was not enough to secure the direct Q2. The Italian Brazilian rider improved his laptime from morning to afternoon more than a second.

The Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team will return to the track on Saturday for qualifying, which will begin at 10:50 (local time). This will be followed by the Sprint race at 15:00 (local time). The Hungarian GP will conclude with the main race on Sunday, starting at 14:00 (local time).

FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
“It was a busy day, but I am happy because throughout the day we’ve been working a lot to find something that can allow us to get closer to our rivals and improving the bike even more: we focused on the front and on the balance of the bike. However, it takes time and we need to prepare the weekend too. We secured the Q2 with a good lap right at the final minutes and we managed to have good laps. Overall, we are happy because today we showed a good speed.”

FRANCO MORBIDELLI
“It was a tough day, the feeling was not good and we didn’t have rear grip, as it happened on Sunday at Mugello. The goal was to change the situation here at Balaton, but unfortunately, we had the same problems today. I couldn’t ride as I wanted to do some performance and I couldn’t have the right corner speed. We will have a lot of work to do in the garage, but we will never stop, we keep working to come back in front.”