Bastianini and Di Giannantonio hunting for more podiums as triple-header kicks off at Motegi
This weekend at Twin Ring Motegi begins the most intense phase of the 2016 Moto3 World Championship, which will see Gresini Racing Team Moto3 riders Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Giannantonio facing three consecutive races outside Europe, the Grands Prix in Japan, Australia and Malaysia before the traditional grand finale in Valencia.
After the splendid performance shown at Aragon, with both riders fighting for the win until the last corner, the goal of the team is to be once again at the top. Enea Bastianini, in particular, after being very close to hit the big target in the last two events, will try to claim the first win of the season. The 18-year-old youngster from Rimini, on the podium in five of the last eight races, is going through a great moment and is determined to fight to regain the second position in the Championship, now occupied by Jorge Navarro.
The other Gresini Racing Team Moto3 rider, rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio, in Japan will face the first of three completely new tracks: for the 18-year-old rider from Rome, who enjoyed of a surprising middle part of the season with nine consecutive top ten finishes, including three podiums, is therefore approaching the probably more complicated part of the season. Fabio is still confident to be able to quickly learn the track and be able to enter once again the battle for the top ten positions.
ENEA BASTIANINI
“I have always felt very comfortable at Motegi: the track suits my riding style, having a lot of hard braking points and accelerations from low speeds. Last year the race was held under the rain, a condition in which I was not able to give my best yet at that time, but we still managed to take a quite good result. The goal for this year is to stay on front: we want to confirm the excellent performance shown at Aragon, possibly trying to get our first win of the season, which we have been chasing for a while”.
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
“I trained a lot ahead of this long trip: in Japan, as well as in Australia and in Malaysia, I will face three tracks that are completely new for me, but we will still try to remain in the Top Ten. I’m saying this since the beginning of the Championship, and I still think that being able to stay in the Top Ten at every race is a very good result for a rookie. We will try to do this also at Motegi, although this will be my first visit at Twin Ring; hopefully I will learn the track quickly”.
FAUSTO GRESINI
“We are going through a great moment, so we head to Japan confident to complete another positive weekend: both at Misano and Aragon Enea came very close to victory, so it would be great to finally hit the big target. We have all we need to succeed, we just need to keep working like we did in the last few races. Di Giannantonio, who turned 18 yesterday, will instead face a completely new track: the so-called triple-header is probably the most complicated part of the season for a rookie; however, Fabio has grown a lot since the beginning of year, so we expect a good performance also from his side”.
