DI GIANNANTONIO FIRST AT THE CHEQUERED FLAG AT LE MANS
The French GP draws to a close with a superb win – albeit only a moral one – for Fabio Di Giannantonio (Del Conca Team Gresini), who was the first rider to cross the finish line after a tactically-perfect race, which saw the Italian putting together two successful overtakes on the last lap, first on Bezzecchi and then on his team mate Martin.
Everything that could happen, however, did happen on the last lap: Bezzecchi ended up crashing after being overtaken by Di Giannantonio – and his tumble basically took out of the equation Martin, who had the podium within grasp.
But that is not all: the race did not end with the chequered flag, as Race Direction decided for a (late) penalisation of three seconds – which were later reduced to two – for Di Giannantonio, who found it out at the end of the cool down lap after being denied access to the Parc Ferme.
This late call resulted in a fourth-place finish for the young Italian, who can still look positively at the racing weekend and the championship standings – as he is now only four points shy of the leader. It was another weekend to forget for Martin – left empty-handed with no blame.
Moral winner – FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #21
“I can honestly tell myself that I won this race. The incident with Kornfeil was a strange one, because we got into the chicane at the same time and he touched me whilst trying to get past – a manoeuvre that forced me to cut the corner. Moreover, I got back on track in the same position I was before, so I can’t even say I had any gain from this. We had a perfect weekend and an outstanding race. The team has done an amazing job, so thank you to them and my family.”
N.C. – JORGE MARTIN #88
“Such back luck once again for me. Nevertheless, it was a difficult weekend so it felt good to be near the front battling for the win. I hope things will go more our way soon, because there was nothing I could do to avoid the crash today. I would have been happy with a podium today, but we’ll come back strong at Mugello.”
