Fabio Di Giannantonio “undervalued” Brazilian MotoGP crash

A crash for Fabio Di Giannantonio in Sunday morning Warm Up at the Brazilian MotoGP had greater consequences than he initially thought, despite a positive ending to his Goiania weekend.

The Italian rider was on the podium in the race, but only hours before he totalled his Desmosedici when he crashed at turns nine and 10 in an off that was reminiscent of Francesco Bagnaia’s in qualifying.

Di Giannantonio spoke afterwards about the crash, saying he felt pain in the race afterwards and thanking the VR46 Ducati team for repairing the bike in time to be ready for the race.

“Super-happy about the weekend, super-happy about this podium that the team really deserved it after the hard work they made this morning,” Fabio Di Giannantonio told the post-race press conference in Brazil.

“After my crash, I completely destroyed my bike, so they didn’t make lunch or anything, they were super-focused on the bike and they were just amazing so they needed a podium. 

“Then I undervalued a little bit my crash of this morning, I said ‘No I’m okay, it’s all okay don’t worry’. But then coming to the first hard braking I felt already some ‘punches’, let’s say, on the joint, and I started to feel the pain a little bit and I lost the concentration for it. 

“Then I started to get the rhythm, but I saw that the Aprilias had for sure something more in the race compared to me, compared to us as Ducati.”

Di Giannantonio’s podium means he is now the top Ducati rider in the standings, three points ahead of Marc Marquez and 19 points behind championship leader and winner of the first two grands prix, Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi.

He was also the first Ducati rider to stand on a grand prix podium this year after Thailand brought an end to the Bologna brand’s podium streak that stretched back to Silverstone 2021.