DIGGIA AND MARQUEZ SCORE POINTS IN VALENCIAN SPRINT RACE
It was a solid performance for the two standard bearers of Team Gresini MotoGP in today’s final sprint race of this extremely long seaso. Fabio Di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez both scored points as they finished sixth and eighth, respectively, at Valencia’s Circuito Ricardo Tormo.
Diggia had a great start (from 11th on the grid to 8th at turn one) and then put together a consistent race – he lapped in the low 1’30s throughout the encounter – with two clean overtaking manoeuvres. Today’s sixth place adds to an incredible tally in this final leg of the season for the Italian.
Alex Marquez scored two important points, especially for the standings: he is now tied with Quartararo in terms of points – 167 – but he is now ahead of the Frenchman in ninth place thanks to the better results achieved so far.
6th – FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #49 (12th in the standings with 138 points)
“If a few months ago they told us that sixth would have meant a bad result, we would have celebrated, so this is clearly a positive day. We have speed and a great pace. Too bad that we’re losing so much on corner exit as it prevented me from having a shot at Pecco. We need to work in this area, but we can still have another great race.”
8th – ALEX MARQUEZ #73 (9th in the standings with 167 points)
“We grew a lot during the weekend and it’s too bad for the qualifying crash while I was on my potential quickest lap. It would have surely helped to start closer to the front. I chose the medium tyre in the race, but it didn’t go as hoped, especially because of the temperatures. I also had a problem at the start, so we have great margin to do better tomorrow.”
