RETURNING MARTIN RIDES THROUGH PAIN, DIGGIA STEADY ON THE WET
The opening day of action for the Moto3 World Championship at Brno has come to a close with Team Del Conca Gresini trying to get back into the swing of things after a month’s break. The first good news was seeing the team back to full force, with Jorge Martin making his comeback – after injuring his right medial malleolus – and joining team mate Fabio Di Giannantonio.
After only four weeks from surgery, it was hard to imagine the Spaniard being able to jump back on his Honda NSF250RW machine. Jorge Martin, however, was cleared to race by the FIM Medical Director yesterday and even decided to take to the track today despite the wet conditions. He completed 10 laps, with a personal best lap-time that turned out to be sufficiently competitive. The pain in his right ankle is still there, however, so Martin will make a final decision regarding the racing weekend tomorrow – after lapping on the dry.
It was a different story for Fabio Di Giannantonio, who completed a lot of laps (25) in mixed conditions, although he was not able to find the right feeling with the bike. Today’s 21st place finish is surely not near his standards, meaning that the young Italian will need to step up his game in FP3 and qualifying in order to improve his chances for a competitive race.
JORGE MARTIN #88
“It was a quite complicated day. To be honest, I was hoping to feel better on the bike, although we knew that there were big chances that things wouldn’t have been easy. This morning I tried to ride without painkillers to get a better understanding of the level of pain, and it was hard. This afternoon, thanks to Clinica Mobile, the pain was much less in the first laps, but then I had to stop due to a strong pain in my fibula. I was able nevertheless to improve by five seconds on my FP1 time and I wasn’t too far from the front runners. Tomorrow we will try to ride on the dry and then make a final decision on whether to continue with the racing weekend or not.”
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #21
“We are still on our way back to full racing form. It’s been a pretty mixed day weather-wise and so my only goal for today was to get some feeling back with the bike. It wasn’t there, however, especially in the morning, therefore I made sure I didn’t crash and tried to make small steps forward lap after lap. It wasn’t enough, clearly, but it’s only the first day so I’m not worried.”
