Di Giannantonio turned things around: “Luckily, the feeling was back!”

Whilst Fabio Di Giannantonio was a regular on the podium in the first half of the 2026 season, things have not gone so well for him in the second half so far. In the last four Grands Prix, the VR46 Ducati rider has not even managed to finish in the top five in the main races. Ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, he emphasised that he wanted to give it his all to get back to the top.

On Friday at Motegi, it looked for a long time as though it was going to be another difficult weekend for ‘Diggia’. In FP1 he finished 9th and in the afternoon’s qualifying session he flew under the radar until the end of the session, with no prospect of a Q2 place. But he stepped it up in the closing stages and ultimately finished sixth, just under four-tenths of a second off the pace.

Di Giannantonio: “I didn’t have the perfect feeling this morning”

“Thanks to the time attack, it was a positive day. I didn’t have the perfect feel in the morning, so we made a change to the set-up for the afternoon,” explained Di Giannantonio. “We took a bit more time to find the rhythm and improve the bike, but we managed it. On the final lap of practice, I put in a good lap on soft tyres and made it through to Q2. It wasn’t easy, as I made a few mistakes and ran into a yellow flag. But luckily, the feeling was back and I was able to put in a good lap.”

The gaps between times were very tight on Friday. Everyone is expected to step it up again on Saturday. “We need to stay focused and keep improving for tomorrow. Qualifying will be important – we need to start as far up the grid as possible,” said the 27-year-old.

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03.10.2026 - 01:35