In the Sprint of the French GP, Fabio Di Giannantonio crashes, but returns on track and crosses the finish line in sixteenth place. Franco Morbidelli crashes too.

Bad luck affected the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team’s Saturday in Le Mans: Fabio Di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli crashed – without any physical consequences – in the Sprint while they were trying to recover places. The rider from Rome re-joined the race crossing the finish line in sixteenth place, while his teammate was forced to retire.

Di Giannantonio was fourth on the starting grid (1’29”699) and he was forced to recover in the opening laps of the Sprint following a difficult start from the second row. While trying to recover positions, Fabio crashed when he was fourteenth. The rider from Rome re-joined the race and he completed the Sprint in sixteenth place despite the difficulties. Now, Di Giannantonio is fourth in the World Standing with 71 points.

Challenging Saturday for Morbidelli: after his sixteenth place in Qualifying, he tried to recover positions in the Sprint from the sixth row. Franco had a difficult start and he was far behind, but a crash at the last corner of the sixth lap interrupted his come back when he was eighteenth. Franco couldn’t re-join the race and he was back in the garage ending his Sprint earlier. The Italian Brazilian rider is thirteenth in the World Standing with 25 points.

The French GP will conclude tomorrow with the main race, which will start at 14:00 (local time).

FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
“We know that sometimes for me it’s difficult to start strong because of my position on the bike, and today in the Sprint I didn’t have a good start. From that moment, everything was a consequence. In the opening laps, the group is always packed, everyone is on soft tyre and it’s difficult to overtake. I was trying to create some space, then, to prepare the line for an overtake, I leaned a little more and I crashed. Anyway, despite the bakc luck, we have to be happy that everything went well because I crashed in the chicane and it could be very dangerous. I have to say a huge thank you to Franco, who did a great manoeuvre to avoid me in that place. The start and the crash are my very first mistakes of the season so far, but that’s racing. For tomorrow, having a good start will be crucial, then we can be in the fight if we stay in the group. The forecast will be a great question mark, but we can be competitive in any condition.”

FRANCO MORBIDELLI
“It was a tough Saturday, we are struggling with the rear grip, the feeling is not enough to be fast. We are working hard on every aspect of the bike and we need to put everything together, but we can see some little improvements. Unfortunately, we had bad luck in the Sprint, I’m just happy that I could avoid Fabio, when he crashed he was very close to me. After his crash, I lost five positions, so we has no more hopes of collecting some points. For tomorrow, we will see how my feeling is and we will try to improve in any conditions, both on wet and on dry track.”