It was a solid Saturday for the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team, which claims the podium with Fabio Di Giannantonio, who is third in the Sprint. Seventh place for Franco Morbidelli.
A sunny weather and warm temperatures welcomed MotoGP on Saturday’s Catalan GP, and the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team had a satisfying day with Fabio Di Giannantonio in the Sprint: after a come back from the second row, he was third and claimed his second Sprint podium of the season. Franco Morbidelli had a more complicated race; he started from the front and crossed the finish line in seventh place.
A difficult Qualifying didn’t stop Di Giannantonio’s ambitions: in the Sprint he had a solid start from the second row (1’38”477). From the sixth place on the grid, Fabio started to recover positions right away and he got into the podium fight from the early stages. The rider from Rome showed a good pace throughout the 12 laps, confirming he has a key role in Catalan Saturday too: Di Giannantonio crossed the line in third place, securing his second Sprint podium of the season (after Brazil). He now sits in fourth place in the World Standing with 91 points.
Brilliant Saturday morning for Morbidelli, who was back in front row after going through Q1: in the Sprint, Franco started from the second place of the grid (1’38”301), but a difficult start didn’t allow him to keep staying in the front group. The Italian Brazilian rider had a key role in the race, with intense battles during all the 12 laps, showing the steps forward. Morbidelli arrived at the chequered flag in seventh place and now he is thirteenth in the World Standing with 30 points.
The Catalan GP will conclude tomorrow with the main race, which will start at 14:00 (local time).
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
“Unfortunately, today we started from the second row because I made a mistake in Qualifying and the race start is always difficult, with many aggressive riders. This Sprint was so long for me, I’ve always been focused on trying to keep my positions, recovering and overtaking. I had a lot of fun! It’s a pity there were few laps to go, because I think I had something more than the two riders in front, but we did our maximum and I am happy. Moreover, we are working on the start, and we made a little step here. For tomorrow’s race, I don’t want to exclude the soft tyre, because today I didn’t feel a great consumption and I could keep pushing in the final stages too. Analysing and choosing well will be crucial. With used tyres, I think we have a good rhythm and feeling, we can have a very good race.”
FRANCO MORBIDELLI
“Overall, it was a positive Saturday. We performed very well, we made some steps this morning, improving the feeling with the bike and having some good time attacks. In the Sprint, I was pushed off at the first corner and I could never recover. In Saturday’s race is always difficult to come back and I hadn’t an excellent potential. Anyway, I feel we’re working very well in these last races, we are very analytics and we communicate well with the engineers and all the team. This weekend, Valentino is in the garage and his spark always helps, we are proud of our performance. For tomorrow, it’s difficult to predict something because anything can happen at the first corner, as we saw today. Let’s see.”
