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Category: Superbikes
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Eight years have passed since the last season in MotoGP as an independent team, eight more from the last time Gresini Racing was on the top step of the podium. The return to the premier class could not have been any more glorious for the team founded by the late-great Fausto Gresini, who collectively burst into tears of joy today at the Losail International Circuit courtesy of a masterful performance by Enea Bastianini, who put together the perfect race aboard his Ducati GP21 machine #23. 
The performance by 24-year-old from Rimini was simply exemplary, as he kept close to the front of the field in the early stages while preserving the tyres around the fast-flowing Qatari track. After spending most of the race in fourth place, he realised he had what it takes to push for more and made his way past former MotoGP champion Marc Marquéz first, and then once having the better of Brad Binder he found himself in second place with a one-second gap to the then-leader Pol Espargaró.
With a relentless place, which included the fastest lap of the race – a 1’54.338secs on lap 17 – he bridged the gap to the front and then slipstreamed his way to the lead. From then on, he careful managed his margin up to the chequered flag, for a new incredible milestone for him and the whole of Gresini Racing.
MotoGP debutant and former Moto2 race winner Fabio Di Giannantonio continued his learning curve within the series as he gathered a very important amount of experience around the track which had seen him on the third step of the podium twelve months ago in Moto2. The Rome-born rider was 17th at the finish line as he continues to gel with the new bike, tyres, and category.
IT'S ALL YOURS FAUSTO
🆠- ENEA BASTIANINI #23
“My feelings are incredible right now. I pushed hard from the start, but the most important thing was to save the tyre for the end of the race. I saw Pol pushing hard at the front, but I managed to overtake Binder and then at the end, once I got very close to Pol, I realised that I could try to win the race. I passed him down the straight at turn one and he went wide, so from then on it was all about staying in the lead and take the win home. It’s hard to express my feelings now, but I want to dedicate the win to Fausto because he gave me incredible motivation from above. This is a fantastic result for the whole team: we’re all in tears right now. I’m also very happy for my family at home, so a big thank you goes to everyone who made this possible.”
17th - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #49
"We’re learning and there’s still a lot to learn, but I must be happy with this debut. Obviously, we want to improve a lot and do it fast, but it was important to finish this first race and gather some valuable experience. Let’s quickly focus on Mandalika now and keep working with confidence.”
#CiaoFaustoâ¤ï¸
www.gresiniracing.com
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ALEIX ESPARGARÓ, CONSISTENTLY A PROTAGONIST THROUGHOUT THE WEEKEND, CONTINUES TO PERFORM WELL AND IS FOURTH IN THE 22 MOTOGP OPENING RACE
MAVERICK VIÑALES MOVES UP THROUGH THE POSITIONS TO FINISH IN THE POINTS
After a weekend spent among the leaders in every practice and qualifying session, Aleix Espargaró confirmed his performance in the race, finishing fourth in an extremely tight finale where the top four riders were all within 2 seconds of one another.
After a good start, Aleix battled in the positions just off the podium, managing to get the better of Rins, Mir and Marc Márquez and successfully catching, but not overtaking, his brother Pol for the podium.
In so doing, Aleix achieved a great result, one of the best of Aprilia’s history in MotoGP, which also reiterates the value of the 2022 RS-GP, the brand new V4 that made its début in the recent winter tests, capable of confirming all the good feedback seen during the preseason testing in the first race. In fact, Aleix finished with the second best race time and went in the books among the top riders in terms of top speed.
Maverick Viñales, although still far from the results that are within reach for a rider of his talent, skilfully reacted to the result of practice and qualifying, where he was never quite able to find the right feeling with the bike on this track. Settling into his race pace and aided by a few crashes ahead of him, he fought his way from the eighth row all the way up through the ranks to twelfth place, which gives him his first championship points for the ’22 season.
Aleix Espargaró
"Coming so close to the podium and missing it may seem like a disappointment, but I am extremely satisfied with our weekend and today’s race. The times show that I was one of the fastest on the track. Unfortunately, I lost a few fundamental tenths battling with Marc and Joan. And in the end, I think that our tyre situation was better than my brother’s and Brad’s, but a small mistake on turn 4 kept me from attempting an attack in the finale. In any case, Aprilia is in the mix - we’re in it! It will be an extraordinary championship where we’ll certainly be able to battle with the top riders and the best manufacturers in the world."
Maverick Viñales
"This is obviously a disappointing result. This is certainly not in line with my expectations or the team’s, but I never had the right feeling with the front end and going into corners. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We need to get to know this bike better. We had some sensations in the tests that we evidently need to find again. I didn't make any mistakes in the race and I didn't have any significant drop in tyre performance, but I didn't manage to have an incisive pace either. This is neither what we want nor what we know we are able achieve."
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#QatarGP qualifying. Last year’s Achilles’ heel – during his rookie MotoGP season - is now a distant memory for Enea Bastianini, who today showed he can be competitive on the single lap, something he had been working on during the winter – and especially during the Sepang and Mandalika tests.
This has been a spectacular Saturday for the “Beast”, who already in FP3 put together a half miracle by claiming a direct spot into Q2 despite the much-worse track conditions compared to the afternoon before. In Q2, he completed a masterful performance as he finished qualifying in second place and only 147 thousandths of a second away from the other Ducati rider Jorge Martin.
Fabio Di Giannantonio made another small step forward in his first Saturday as a premier-class rider by qualifying in 21st place. The Rome-born rider is eager to improve, and the massive leap forward (more than one second from yesterday) is surely a very positive sign for the #49, who will try to sneak his way inside the top 15 tomorrow. The opening race of the year will begin at 18:00 local time (GMT +3). 
2nd - ENEA BASTIANINI #23 (1’53.158)
“A fantastic day for me, for the team and for Fausto as well. We worked a lot on the time attack also during testing and now we’re on the front row. Obviously we’re always looking for more and the pole position wasn’t too far away, but today it is fine this way. Tomorrow it is going to be a challenging race: I never started that much in front of everybody, and we have to understand the approach to the race. There are at least ten riders who can battle for the podium and the win. It will be important to understand track conditions and choose the right tyres. The first five laps will be key!”
21st - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #49 (1’54.276)
“I’m quite happy with today and there surely are both positive and negative aspects. We’re getting a better understanding at each outing while improve the feeling with the bike: even today we made some important steps forward. The negative side is that I’m not feeling comfortable in the lower part of the classification, and I need to get in the right frame of mind to fully acknowledge this is the best of the best, so I first must learn how to get on the same level as the others.”
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ALEIX ESPARGARÓ IS FAST STRAIGHT AWAY ON THE FIRST DAY OF PRACTICE IN QATAR
MAVERICK VIÑALES FINISHES JUST 55 ONE HUNDREDTHS OUTSIDE THE TOP TEN
Under Losail’s floodlights in Qatar, the 2022 MotoGP world championship kicked off with the first day of free practice.
After a winter season of positive tests, the new Aprilia RS-GP shone with Aleix Espargaró, consistently in the group of leaders from the first practice session and then easily making it into the top ten, thanks to a seventh-place time of 1’53.886. Both the ranking and the time could have been significantly better if Aleix hadn’t had to cross trajectories with Viñales on the final turn of the decisive lap.
With this great performance, Aleix has a good chance to get a spot in Q2 if, as seems likely, the temperature conditions in FP3 tomorrow, scheduled for 1:15 PM local time, should make it extremely difficult for everyone to improve on their times from this evening.
Maverick Viñales, on the other hand, on this track for the first time astride an Aprilia, remained consistently just outside the top ten, busy testing various settings but without finding the best solution. He finished with the eighteenth time at 1’54.524.
Aleix Espargaró
“It was a positive day. I’m pleased because we started well. The bike is proving to be better than the one last year and I had the potential to finish much closer to the top. But it’s all good. The important thing today was to finish in the top ten and we did that. I feel fast and we’ll try to do well in qualifying tomorrow because here, with such a long straight, getting out front straight away is extremely important.”
Maverick Viñales
“I would have liked to have been farther forward but I’m not worried. It’s just that adapting to a new circuit for this new bike was complicated. The references on the track changed completely and obviously we have not had time here to test many solutions like we were able to do during the winter tests. We tried going in a direction which wasn’t the right one, but now it seems clear where we need to make changes. We need to keep working and improve in every session, beginning already tomorrow.”
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A very important three-day test has drawn to a close today at Lombok, which also ended winter testing for MotoGP. Team Gresini showed they can be among the protagonists straight from the get-go with an excellent performance by Bastianini both at Sepang and Mandalika, while Fabio Di Giannantonio has already proved he can comfortably be within the premier class. The Mandalika Circuit has surely presented some challenges for the two riders: track conditions were never perfect and line mistakes, which are absolutely normal on a new track, came with a big price to pay.
Fabio Di Giannantonio crashed unhurt twice, one on the opening day (turn ten) and the other on the second and final day (turn 11): both crashes came after similar mistakes, as the rider #49 lost the front-end and tumbled onto the very-wide gravel traps of the Indonesian track. The Rome-born rider did well in making sure those setbacks did not affect him as he worked both on time attack and race pace, with the priority being to improve his feeling with the Desmosedici GP21 machine.
Enea Bastianini had another great weekend, on a track that does not suit his riding style perfectly. Less late braking, but great feeling especially in the fast part of the track and with soft tyres, which helped the premier class sophomore log the 13th quickest time on the Ducati – one tenth shy of top five. One thing the Italian did remarkably well was to find his time attack lap in a matter of a few minutes, which is something absolutely crucial qualifying-wise ahead of the season.
13th - ENEA BASTIANINI #23 (1’31.599 – 129 laps)
“It was a very positive test, and we’re ready for Qatar. I got to know the 2021 bike properly, even though I also liked it at Jerez. Today’s result is not very indicative… We only worked on the race pace and the feeling was excellent. Things are going great with the team and I think we made a step forward even compared to Sepang: the more time we spend on the bike, the more we can be competitive. We have a little more experience compared to last season and honestly speaking it is also easier to work with the team: now I know what to ask for and what to tell them. I just can’t wait now.”
21st - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #49 (1’31.915 – 149 laps)
“It has been a positive preseason for us. We improved a lot aboard the Ducati and we managed to do so day after day. Today we also did a race simulation and we’re very happy. We are still in our early ‘school’ days but there’s plenty of motivation to do well. Compared to Sepang - where we lost a few days - we made an important step forward and now we need to keep both feet on the ground and think one step at the time. Qatar is around the corner so now it will be about anxiously waiting for another three weeks.”
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