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Category: Moto GP
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#ArgentinaGP race. Team Gresini Racing MotoGP always tends to look at the bright side of things and today at Termas de Rio Hondo de best news comes from Fabio Di Giannantonio who got away with just a few bruises after the heavy crash at turn 11 with only two laps left in the third Grand Prix of the season.
The racing weekend was squeezed into a two-day event due to the ‘notorious’ MotoGP crates which prevented both Gresini standard bearers from finding the perfect feeling on what is known to be a challenging track to interpret.
It was not a GP to remember for Enea Bastianini either. Today’s top-ten finish left a bittersweet taste in the Italian rider’s mouth as he struggled to get up to speed on the Argentine track. The few points scored allow him to remain in the higher part of the standings: Bastianini will fly out to Texas in third place, 9 points away from the top of the standings.
10th - ENEA BASTIANINI (3rd in the championship standings)
“We’re not satisfied with how today went. We were not comfortable with the bike, and we lost the good feeling we had in the warm up this morning. We really didn’t understand this race well. I did have a decent pace, but I was too often at the limit. Maybe with a more ‘traditional’ weekend we may have had a few more options, but the goal was vey different. We had too many issues with the rear-end of the bike. We scored a few points, so let’s think positive and look forward to Texas.”
DNF - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
“It wasn’t a positive weekend. We had very little track-time and unfortunately, I ended up crashing out of the race with a few kms left to ride. It was a difficult moment, in a very fast corner. Fortunately, I got away with a few scratches and a hit in the abdominal area – without major consequences. Obviously, we were aiming at a different result and a more normal weekend, but we need to keep our heads down and keep working.”
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The Argentine racing weekend has finally begun with an unusual Saturday, in which were squeezed both free practice sessions and qualifying. All the crates of Team Gresini only arrived during the night, which required an incredible amount of effort for mechanics and team staff who worked tirelessly from 4am in the morning until the end of the day.
Qualifying were not kind to Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Giannantonio, even though the former – who currently leads the championship standings – was only 22 thousandths of a second away from getting into Q2 and will therefore start tomorrow’s race from thirteenth place.
Di Giannantonio did not manage to shine on the Argentine track and will line up on the twentieth spot of the grid for the Argentine Grand Prix. The Italian experienced a little step back from the same day in Indonesia two weeks ago, although his feeling with the bike is still improving.
Tomorrow’s race will indeed get underway at 15:00 local time (GMT -3), with a double warm up (40 minutes) in place to allow riders for a bit more of track time before the third race of the season.
13º - ENEA BASTIANINI (1'38.566)
“This was a difficult day. It was one of those days that start on the wrong foot and that are hard to change. We missed the access to Q2 just for a few thousandths of a second both in FP2 and Q1. We had a few issues that we maybe addressed a little too late, but these days happen, and we need to accept the outcome. What we can do is to keep working to be competitive tomorrow and try to put together a good comeback race. I felt the bike a bit more ‘mine’ in today’s final laps, and the direction we’ve taken is the right one.”
20º - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO (1'39.126)
“It was a challenging day for us because we made a mistake this morning: we kind of ran around in circles as we focused more on my feelings than on the track conditions, which changed quite a lot during the day. We took a wrong direction with the set-up, but we went back to previous settings and we improved – which also doing some damage limitation in qualifying. It’s a pity because we lost some time, but these things can happen when you’re a rookie. Fortunately we’ll have 40 minutes of warm up tomorrow and we’ll try to make the most of them.”
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AFTER THE INDONESIAN RACE, APRILIA RACING SEEKS CONFIRMATION ON THE TERMAS DE RIO HONDO TRACK
After a two-year absence in 2020 and 2021, skipped due to the health situation, MotoGP returns to do a round in Argentina on the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit. A race the not only embraces the passion of all South America, but which also represents an important sign of gradual return to normalcy for the Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing Championship circus.
The start of the season was important, both for Aleix and for Maverick. While the former solidified his good performance in Doha with a solid race on the Mandalika circuit too, for Viñales, the Indonesian race represented a potential turning point in his progress adapting to the new Aprilia RS-GP.
Both are therefore headed to Argentina with the right dose of enthusiasm, with the goal of further confirming the progress demonstrated thus far by the entire Aprilia Racing Team.
ALEIX ESPARGARÓ
"I am extremely happy to be returning to Argentina to race. It’s a country where you really feel the support for our sport, as well as a track where I have always felt rather good in the past. We got off on the right foot this season and now we have two races in a row ahead of us where it will be fundamental to hold the line and earn as many points as possible before returning to Europe."
MAVERICK VIÑALES
"If it were up to me, I’d have raced in Argentina as soon as the Indonesian race was over. At Mandalika, we made an important step forward in terms of settings which did not come out fully in the race due to the difficult conditions, but which makes me highly optimistic for the upcoming rounds. I'm convinced that we are extremely close to finding full confidence but in the current MotoGP championship, every tiny improvement takes a lot of work for both the team and the rider. It’s a matter of putting a lot of details together and creating a perfect synergy but we are on the right path."
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Danny Kent and Christian Iddon star on the opening episode of The Inside Line, as it returns for a second series, and this time, the podcast is now a video series, too.
Watch the video on YouTube here.
Watch on Facebook here.
Chris Moss returns as the show’s host, and in this episode he goes under the skin of BSB with Buildbase Suzuki’s 2022 superbike riders, discussing everything from injuries and the mental challenges as well as the physical ones, to rivalries and on-track (and off-track) aggression, how to set up a superbike, the effects social media can have on your confidence or mentality, handling PR duties, and this season’s aims and ambitions.
Official testing for the 2022 Bennetts British Superbike Championship began today, at Snetterton, with the opening round of the season taking place on 15-17 April at Silverstone.
Follow Kent, Iddon, and the Buildbase Suzuki team’s season on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
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After the exhilarating start to the season with the win in Qatar and the adventurous challenge under the rain at Mandalika, the MotoGP paddock moves to two circuits which are almost new to Team Gresini MotoGP. In a matter of seven days, the Italian team will tackle the #ArgentinaGP and the #AmericasGP.
Gresini Racing never raced as an independent team at Termas de Rio Honda, even though the Faenza-based squad logo did get a taste of the podium under the ‘Sol de Mayo’ (May sun): we have to go all the way back to October 23rd 1998 to relive Alex Barros’s third place finish in the Argentine Grand Prix at the Juan and Oscar Galvez circuit.
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The team only did one appearance at the “Circuit of the Americas” in 2013, with Alvaro Bautista crossing the line in 8th place. There are fond memories of racing in the United States of America for the team, however, as Marco Melandri clinched a third-place finish in 2006 and 2007 at Laguna Seca, while Alex De Angelis was second at Indy in 2009.
Enea Bastianini has a fourth place as best result in Argentina (2018, Moto3 class), while in Texas he finished second in the same year and above all he was sixth last year in his MotoGP debut season. Fabio Di Giannantonio also holds good memories of both tracks: he was on the podium at Termas in 2018 and at Austin the year before (both in Moto3).
ENEA BASTIANINI #23
“I like the Argentine track a lot and due to Covid it’s been a while since we last went there, so it will be great to return. We come from a strange race in Indonesia: conditions were not the best, but we still improved a lot in the wet and that’s not a small thing, so I’m happy. CoTA is quite a particular circuit, and it won’t be easy to get up to speed there. I think it will surely be simpler with the Ducati 2021 compared to last year… I can’t wait to get back on the road.”
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #49
“Finally we go back to Argentina… We did not go there in the last two years and I think it’s a really nice track. It’ll surely be dirty, a little bit like Mandalika, so I don’t exclude that the dry set-up we found in Indonesia may work as a solid basis for that circuit as well. What about America… one of my favourite stops of the year: it’s a very demanding track, but I’ve always done quite well and been quick, so honestly I cannot wait to racing there with the MotoGP. Surely the speed will be incredible, with very hard braking, I’m so looking forward to it".
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