Fabio di Giannantonio’s hope of repeating the podium of the sprint before the Hungarian Motogup began was wiped out as technical issues had to change bikes and start in pit lanes.
The Italian, who should have tied for third place on the grid, had power issues with his Desmoceci GP25 during the sighting lap.
His desperate work by the crew of VR46 and Ducati engineers easily raised hopes for a fix.
However, the obstacles reappeared in the warm-up lap, and Digianntonio had no choice but to switch to the second bike, equip different tires, and start at the edge of the pit lane.
“Unfortunately, on the rap (we’ve already seen) the bike lacks power, and Ducati technicians have tried to analyse what’s going on,” said Di Giannantonio.
“And we believed everything was working, so we started, but then… I had the same problem with the warm-up wrap.
“So I had to start on my second bike from the pit lane.
“That’s a shame because, even with the tires, the soft front and medium rear, it was certainly the wrong tire – we were still very fast and consistent.”
Despite being the only rider on the soft front, Di Giannantonio set the ninth fastest lap in the race and fought to score the final point in 15th place.
After losing 16 seconds on the opening lap, he ended up crossing the 26.262 line, falling behind race winner Mark Marquez.
Removed the time deficit from the start of the pit lane, and he had planned to race with the opposite tire choice, but medium front and soft rear.
“It’s an opportunity we missed, but we keep our heads high,” added Di Giannantonio. “We had a great weekend. We did a good job and we are finally beginning to understand this Desmosedici GP25.
“Yesterday we had great qualifiers and great sprints. It’s a shame about racing, but it’s a race. I’m proud of my team. They’re doing a great job. We’re happy and have to do something positive.”
As a result, Di Giannantonio will slip from fifth to seventh in MotoGP World Championship standings, after KTM’s Pedro Acosta and VR46 teammate Franco Morbidelli.