Challenging Sprint at Le Mans for the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team, but Fabio Di Giannantonio secures a Top10 finish with a strong comeback to 7th place. Franco Morbidelli is 15th.
Tricky Sprint at Le Mans for both the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team riders, who fought to recover from a tough start of the day. Good comeback ride from Fabio Di Giannantonio, who started from the sixth row and crossed the line in seventh place, while Franco Morbidelli ended Saturday’s race in 15th.
Starting from 17th on the grid, Di Giannantonio steadily gained positions, delivering an impressive performance that allowed him to finish the Sprint in 7th. A promising Top10 result for Fabio, who remains fifth in the World Standings with 66 points.
A difficult start affected Morbidelli's Sprint. Lining up 9th on the grid, Franco dropped back early in the race and battled to rejoin the leading group. He finished 15th, holding on to fourth place in the World Standings with 84 points.
The Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team will return to action on Sunday for the main race, which gets underway at 2:00 p.m. local time (CET) and will end the French Grand Prix.
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
"I improved quite a lot from yesterday, but the other guys made another step. So, this weekend we are a little bit behind. But we are making progress to understand our base setup, which has been the main thing missing in recent races – even when we’ve had good results. Today’s position isn’t great, but we’re heading in the right direction. The Sprint was good, I didn’t expect to be that close to the third place in terms of pace. We did a quite good change on the bike and it helped a lot, but there’s still something missing if we want to fight for the win. I believe we have the potential to be in the Top 3 every weekend, so my focus is on improving for tomorrow. Most importantly, I want to enjoy it – having fun will be key, and the goal is to end up as close to the front as possible."
FRANCO MORBIDELLI
"Another very eventful day. I was struggling to engage the front device, then I did it, but I was late in the procedure. I decided not to be aggressive at the start because I wasn’t in the right position, so I had an awful start. During the race, I didn’t have the right feeling, I wasn’t comfortable with the bike, and I didn’t have the right grip mostly on the rear. So, we couldn’t be as fast as we expected. Despite that, we could finish the race and collect some valuable data, since I didn’t do many laps during this weekend. The Sprint will be useful for tomorrow’s race, I think we will be able to twist around these tricky days. We will do it."
