#JAPANESEGP: SEVENTH PLACE FOR DIGGIA UNDER POURING RAIN
The first day of action for the quarter-litre class of MotoGP has drawn to a close at Motegi, with rain heavily affecting the amount of track-time available to the riders. Team Del Conca Gresini Moto3’s Fabio Di Giannantonio and Jorge Martin were only able, in fact, to complete around 20 laps each over the course of the day.
Di Giannantonio, who turned 19 years old this week at Motegi, got quickly up to speed in the morning and set a 2’11.055secs lap-time that gave him the seventh position in the timesheets. In the afternoon, the young Italian struggled a bit more to find the right grip around the Japanese track.
Jorge Martin gave the same type of feedback to the team as he only lapped a bit more consistently in the morning, while in the afternoon his gap from the front became really significant. He eventually finished the day in 21st place, as no rider was able to improve during FP2.
Moto3 action will resume tomorrow at 9:00 local time (GMT +9) with Free Practice 3, which will be followed by qualifying at 12:35.
7th – FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
“It was a positive day. We were quite quick in both session, although in the afternoon I had the feeling that the track conditions got a lot worse – because there was basically no grip, especially at the rear-end of the bike. In any case, I’m really confident for tomorrow: we need to keep working well during FP3 in order to be competitive in qualifying, but we’re in the right direction.”
21st – JORGE MARTIN #88
“It hasn’t been an easy day for me. This morning we got out on track, but it was more to test the conditions of the track. In the afternoon, we immediately made some changes to find a good feeling in wet conditions, but we lacked rear-end grip. We did recover some tenths from the top, but we still need to improve in the wet, so we’ll see how the conditions will be tomorrow.”
