DIGGIA SATURDAY BOY: SECOND ROW AT SACHSENRING
#GermanGP qualifying. Fabio Di Giannantonio is once again the protagonist you don’t expect (even though it is becoming quite frequent as of late) after yet another superlative performance at the Sachsenring. The rider #49, who was already quite competitive yesterday, first dominated Q1 and then played his cards right in Q2, as he narrowly missed on a front-row start on many occasions. He finished 5th overall and 3rd fastest Ducati rider behind Bagnaia and Zarco. The rookie of Team Gresini MotoGP therefore put together his so-far second best qualifying performance in the premier class (tied with the one in Montmeló).
The challenging weekend continues for Enea Bastianini, who has so far never been competitive at this track – which is surely not among his favourites). Yesterday’s issues im sectors two and three and the lack of feeling with the front-end of his Ducati remain.
There was also a bit of an awkward situation too, as Enea appeared to have made it to what would have been his last flying lap 0.1secs too late, and therefore missed on one final chance in Q1. For the multiple race winner, tomorrow’s warm up will be crucial as today was his second-worst qualifying of the season (he was 18th in Portugal).
5th – FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #49 (1’20.128s)
“I must say I’m suffering the German air a bit too much, as I didn’t know I suffered from allergy… this morning I struggled a lot in FP3, more for thr physical condition than else, since the bike is good and I’m gelling with it better and better. We were super quick in qualifying and if it wasn’t for a mistake at turn one maybe we could have battled for pole position. It’s good to be up there anyway, so let’s hope allergy won’t be an issue tomorrow.”
17th – ENEA BASTIANINI #23 (1’20.905s)
“Obviously I’m not happy. We feel the absence of Alberto (Giribuola): I’m not making excuses but it’s a fact. We were also quite lucky with that chequered flag at the very limit in Q1. We simply have to work, but tomorrow’s race will be difficult. The goal is to finish the race to get some confidence back and possibly to not lose too many points.”
