The Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team secures the Sprint podium of the Spanish GP with Franco Morbidelli, who claims his first podium of the seasion. Fabio Di Giannantonio is fifth in a race with mixed conditions.
Rain stole the spotlight on Saturday at the Spanish GP, with a Sprint race that was held in mixed conditions. The balance for the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team is more than positive, having secured a podium with Franco Morbidelli, who delivered a great comeback from eighteenth position. Fabio Di Giannantonio, who started from the front row and fought for the podium, ended the Sprint in Top5.
A difficult qualifying session made Saturday morning more complicated for Morbidelli, who couldn’t get through Q1, finishing with the eighteenth fastest time (1’50”219). Starting from the sixth row, Franco delivered an incredible comeback in the Sprint, also taking advantage of the rain that began to fall in the second half of the race. At the time of the bike change, the Italian-Brazilian rider gained positions with great overtakes, crossing the line in third place. With today’s result, Morbidelli claims his first Sprint podium of the season, his third with the Tavullia-based team, and is now thirteenth in the World Standing with 21 points.
It was also a positive Saturday for Di Giannantonio, who secured a front-row start in qualifying for the third consecutive time this season (1’49”097). Starting from third on the grid, Fabio entered the fight for the podium from the early stages of the race, proving to be competitive even when the rain made conditions more tricky. Leading the race even in wet conditions, the rider from Rome then carried out the bike change and rejoined in fifth place. Di Giannantonio held on to a Top5 finish until the chequered flag and, with this result, is fifth in the World Standing with 55 points.
The Spanish GP will conclude tomorrow with the main race, scheduled to start at 14:00 (local time).
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
“We have to be optimistic: we did a good job finishing in fifth place in a race where it would have been easy to score zero points. It’s also good for the championship, we recovered a few points from the top. Of course, I wanted something more. In the opening laps on the dry we were fast and I tried to play my cards to win, but with the rain I was a bit cautious because I had the used rear tyre from this morning. We didn’t expect wet conditions in the afternoon, but that’s also part of racing. Now we focus on tomorrow, where we’ll have another opportunity to try to win given the expected dry conditions. We only need to improve the start, but we proved we are fast.”
FRANCO MORBIDELLI
“It was a crazy race, the conditions were very unusual. I started from eighteenth position, it was raining, then it wasn’t, the track was wet… At a certain point I decided it was the right moment to come into the pits, and I managed to do it at the perfect time. When I got back on track, in the wet, my only goal was to overtake, and I completed several moves. Then I saw I was third at the end: it’s a fantastic result, something we really needed in this difficult moment. I want to dedicate this result to all those people who feel they are not enough, that they don’t deserve it. The truth is they have to keep pushing and working because something will come anyway. When I crossed the finish line, I thought of all the people who are suffering for some reason. For tomorrow, we’ll start from the sixth row; if conditions return to normal, we’ll do our best to recover as many positions as possible and enjoy the race.”
