Fabio di Giannantonio couldn't hide his admiration for Marc Marquez. According to him, the Spanish rider has proven that Ducati can compete with Aprilia at MotoGP Misano, after he once again hit the limit of his own package in Saturday's Sprint Race.
Di Giannantonio held a podium position for the first half of the race before Jorge Martin overtook him. The VR46 rider eventually finished fourth.
“I think I squeezed the maximum from our package. I could have done better in qualifying, because I was already 1.5 tenths faster when I crashed,” said Di Giannantonio. “But then in the race, it was the maximum.”
He then highlighted Aprilia's advantage in Misano's fast corners, especially Curvone. “The entry with the brakes: They can do much more trail braking and prepare the line well, and I can't, because every time I try to hold the brakes with a proper line, I lose the front,” he explained. “At the moment, I'm riding much more supermotard style. I have to do really sideways angles into the corners. Especially in the fast corners, then you lose double, so that's the main difference at the moment.”
Nevertheless, Di Giannantonio emphasized that Ducati must continue to learn from Marquez. “We have to improve the front of the bike, I always said it. But also, for sure, Marc is Marc, he's doing a good job. It seems that he can put the Ducati at the level of the Aprilia, so we must learn from him as always,” he added.
Di Giannantonio currently sits fourth in the championship standings, 49 points behind Martin. He acknowledged that Aprilia remain the main contenders, but Marquez cannot be discounted. “For sure, I always count the Aprilia as the main contenders. Then Marc, you can never discount him,” he said about the title battle. “Then for sure, I'm one of these guys that can be inside of the battle. And after today, I think it would be crazy to not believe that we can do it. Because I just lost one point from the first position [Martin]. 49 points is a lot, but still the mathematics don't kick me out. So until we are out, we have to push, we have to believe, we have to work, try to be better.”
With Marquez's consistent performance, the pressure on Ducati to keep developing is mounting. If they can close the gap to Aprilia, the title fight could change dramatically. However, as Di Giannantonio says, all that requires hard work and relentless learning.
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