FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO BLAMES BRAKE PROBLEM FOR DISAPPOINTING MISANO RESULT

Fabio Di Giannantonio left Misano “disappointed” after a bike problem that surfaced early and shaped the entire race. The VR46 Racing Team Ducati rider was marking a milestone—his 200th MotoGP grand prix—but could only finish seventh after starting fourth.

Di Giannantonio said his opening phase had been promising. He got away well and, despite the pressure of the opening laps, felt he had the right package to run strongly. However, the race was “ruined quite early,” he explained, with two separate issues compounding each other.

The first came at the first corner. Di Giannantonio went wide while avoiding Fermin Aldeguer, and that moment cost him momentum and places. From there, a brake problem made it even harder to ride at his usual level.

“On my side I am really tired because when you have this kind of issue that you are always under stress in the brakes because you don't know where you will stop, you get even more tired, you are not relaxed on the bike,” Di Giannantonio said. “So, honestly on my side I'm quite tired for this.”

He described how the braking lever progressively became harder and more difficult to use lap after lap. “It was really difficult to stop the bike, the lever started to be more far and more hard every lap. I was trying to put more close but it was coming harder and harder and harder,” he said. “So, I was not stopping the bike at all.”

With the brakes not working as he needed, Di Giannantonio adjusted his riding style in a way that limited his ability to attack. He said he had to brake much earlier than normal, which reduced his chances to make passes. “I was riding so bad for this, I was braking super-early and for this also I didn't make any overtakes – just a couple, because Luca [Marini] and Franky [Franco Morbidelli] did some mistakes because if not I was not able to overtake them,” he explained.

As a result, the race became more about managing the situation than pushing for maximum performance. “So, it was just a race that I was cruising because I was not positive to stop the bike,” Di Giannantonio said. Even though he insisted he gave “100 per cent,” he felt the bike issue prevented him from extracting the maximum potential.

“For sure I'm disappointed,” he added after the chequered flag. “I think we created a good package to do a good job today and our race got ruined quite early.”

He also pointed to the sequence of events that led to the final result: a strong start, the first-corner incident while avoiding Aldeguer, and then the brake issue that made stopping increasingly difficult. “But then also I got a little issue with the brakes,” he said.

Di Giannantonio summed up the overall feeling of the day as tough and stressful, explaining that the combination of early disruption and deteriorating braking confidence left him unable to fight for a better finish. “For sure it is a tough race,” he said, before concluding that it was “a pity” because he believed the team could have achieved more under normal circumstances.