The rider of the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team ends the Practice of the Monster Energy Czechia GP in third place and goes to Q2 straight away for the seventh consecutive time in 2026. Morbidelli is seventeenth.
Friday of the Monster Energy Czechia GP ends with a Top3 for the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team: it proves to have a key role with Fabio Di Giannantonio, who is third in Practice and secures a direct Q2 spot. It was a more difficult day for Franco Morbidelli, who is seventeenth.
It was a day that kept getting better and better for Di Giannantonio, who finished FP1 in eighth position. During Practice, Fabio considerably improved both his speed and the feeling on his Ducati Desmosedici GP. The rider from Rome clocked a 1’51”942 laptime – faster than the lap record – which allowed him to climb to third place. With a Top3 finish on the opening day of the Monster Energy Czechia GP, Di Giannantonio secured a direct Q2 spot for the seventh consecutive time this year.
Morbidelli had a more difficult Friday: he is still working on finding again the feeling that allows him to fight for the top positions. Franco was fifteenth in FP1 and showed a good step forward in Practice, where he considerably improved his laptime. His 1’52”576 as his best laptime was not enough to be in Q2, so the Italian Brazilian rider will have to go through Q1 after ending the opening day in Brno with the seventeenth place.
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 Monster Energy Czechia GP will conclude with the main race on Sunday, starting at 14:00 (local time).
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
“I am very happy because this morning we didn’t start with good feelings. But we worked well, as we managed to clarify the things to try and successfully completed our afternoon programme. The bike confirmed to be better than this morning and the last races, where we did some changes that didn’t help us. Today we had a great Friday, especially looking at the Practice: we’ve been fast and we had good feelings again. We still have to work on the pace, but I’m optimistic for tomorrow, the goal will be to have a great performance.”
FRANCO MORBIDELLI
“It’s a pity, I lost the Q1 just for two tenths! It’s not much, but it’s enough to stay out of the Top10. There are many things to improve, and we will try to do a good job this evening to make a step forward tomorrow. There is room for improving and we will work to reduce the gap. Today I tried the start without the holeshot, the feeling was very different, but it wasn’t bad.”
