“Incredible Things Are Happening”: Di Giannantonio Betrayed Again by His Ducati

The Roman rider’s Qatar GP ended disappointingly. After taking a podium in the sprint race, he had imagined a very different result on Sunday.

Fabio Di Giannantonio could manage no better than an unremarkable eighth place in the MotoGP race at the Lusail International Circuit, a result well below expectations. After finishing third in qualifying, second in the sprint, and setting the fastest time in the Warm Up, the Pertamina Enduro VR46 rider had hoped to fight for at least a podium on Sunday afternoon. Things did not go according to plan, and he left Qatar bitterly disappointed.

Speaking to Sky Sport MotoGP, Diggia admitted he had been caught off guard by his lack of competitiveness in the race, especially since during the Warm Up he felt he had an incredibly competitive Ducati: "In the morning, I got off the bike and told the guys I hadn’t had this much fun in the last two years, because I had an absolutely incredible bike and could do whatever I wanted. We were ready to put in a great performance, but unfortunately, from the second lap onward, I had an incredible vibration in the rear wheel. The whole bike was vibrating, and I couldn’t get it to lean".

His start had not been perfect, and he also had to contend with the aggressive Trackhouse riders. A clash with Ai Ogura forced him to run slightly wide, and he quickly dropped back to eighth. He had hoped to fight his way back through the field, but his comments suggest his race was effectively over after two laps because of wholly unexpected vibrations—an issue the VR46 team will need to analyze thoroughly to prevent it from happening again at the final Grands Prix in Portimao and Valencia.

Di Giannantonio is deeply frustrated both by how the Qatar race unfolded and by what has been happening to him over the last few Grands Prix: "It’s a shame to see my pace drop off so much. I wasn’t even this slow in FP1. We’ve been fast all year, and there have been races where we’ve managed to deliver, while in others things have happened that were somewhat beyond our control, preventing us from showing our full potential. It’s a shame that for three or four races in a row, incredible things have happened to us at the most important moment—the race. The speed is there; we’ve proved that, but we have to hope everything goes smoothly".

Diggia hopes to avoid any more setbacks in the closing stages of the 2026 MotoGP season. He wants to end his final year with the VR46 team on a positive note before moving to the factory KTM squad.