Fifth place for the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team with Morbidelli, while Di Giannantonio is thirteenth.
The Sprint of the Japanese Grand Prix proves to be bittersweet for the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team: Franco Morbidelli secures the fifth place and he is the top Independent rider, while Fabio Di Giannantonio crosses the finish line in thirteenth place.
On Saturday morning at Motegi, Morbidelli ended the Qualifying session in sixth place, confirming his as the top Independent rider. In the Sprint, Franco started from the second row and he was in the fight for the Top5, crossing the finish line in fifth place. The #21 rider is sixth in the World Standings with 185 points.
Di Giannantonio started his Saturday on the back foot, with a tricky Q2 that he ended in twelfth place. Fabio started from the fourth row and lost positions for the incident in the early stages of the Sprint. He bounced back until he arrived to the chequered flag in thirteenth place. The #49 rider sits seventh in the World Standings with 179 points.
The Japanese GP will end tomorrow with the main race, which will start at 2 p.m. (local time, +7 CET).
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
“It was a tough day: for the second time this season, the feeling with the bike changes completely from one session to the other in an unexpected way, even without touching anyrhing on the bike. Yesteday I had one of the best day of the year in terms of feeling, today it was not like so. The good thing is that, even if I’m slower looking at the data, I’m riding in the same way as yesterday. It’s a bit frustrating situation overall, but we are working with the team to try to understand the reason and fix it for tomorrow’s race. We will fix it like we’ve always done.”
FRANCO MORBIDELLI
“It was a positive Saturday definitely, we turned around things compared to yesterday. This morning I was still unhappy with the Friday we had, but as soon as I arrived to the garage, everybody was pumped up and I got back the energy to face the morning in the right way. I passed through Q1 with a very good laptime and I had a pretty good Q2. In the Sprint we had the pace to stay with the top group. Unfortunately, in the early laps I didn’t have the speed to attack, then I got it back, but it was too late. Anyway, overall I am happy. Yesterday we has a good speed with the medium tyres, hopefully it is the same for tomorrow’s race.”
