Di Giannantonio looks to the champ: “Marc pulls off the perfect races”

There is a lot at stake for Fabio Di Giannantonio at Misano. Just a few kilometres from the home base of his VR46 team in Tavullia, there is inevitably pressure on the Roman rider to perform, especially as he is riding the latest Ducati factory machinery. Di Giannantonio, however, is arriving on the Adriatic coast with anything but the wind in his sails. Since the German Grand Prix, the future KTM rider’s form has taken a dip.

His sprint podium finish in Germany was followed by crashes and finishes in 5th, 6th and 7th places. In the World Championship standings, however, the damage was limited, partly due to the injury-enforced absence of Trackhouse rider Ai Ogura. In the overall standings, the VR46 rider sits in 4th place – 53 points behind leader Jorge Martin. Just ahead of him is Marco Bezzecchi, whom ‘Diggia’ does not really consider to be on a level playing field with him ahead of the Misano event.

“Of course, we Italians always get a bit of an extra boost from the fans here at Misano – but I’m still expecting a pretty tough weekend here. Admittedly, there have been situations this year where you couldn’t say for certain: ‘This is an Aprilia track’ or ‘This is a Ducati track’ – most recently in Aragon – but the fact is: last year, Marco was already on pole position here. To be right at the front here, everything has to go perfectly for me. But of course – we’ll give it a go.”

Fabio Di Giannantonio: «Misano wird hart»

Foto: Gold and Goose

Di Giannantonio was quite self-critical: “Looking at the standings, it seems as though I’m very consistent – but what I’m lacking is consistency right at the very top. I don’t feel I’m quite there in that respect. What I can’t manage is to pull everything off perfectly, from a perfect qualifying session to perfect races without any mistakes. Marc, on the other hand, manages that. He has the ability to put in perfect weekends. I still have to learn and keep working on myself in this area.”

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It’s questionable whether Misano is the ideal track for that. ‘Diggia’ on his relationship with the circuit on the Adriatic coast: “I’ve had good races and even podium finishes in the junior classes, but it really took a great many laps – even on the Panigale in practice – before I started to enjoy Misano. But Misano has never been my favourite track.”

It has been proven time and again that the Ducati Desmosedici can be ridden to victory at Misano. Twelve months ago, Bezzecchi was locked in a fierce battle with Marc Marquez at the San Marino Grand Prix and narrowly lost out to the eventual world champion – who would later become a Ducati Lenovo rider.