#AmericasGP Free Practice. The Gresini Racing MotoGP Team is back up to speed at the Circuit of The America in Austin, Texas, courtesy of an excellent performance by Enea Bastianini from already from the early minutes of this opening day of action. His fourth-quickest lap-time is the icing on the cake, as the pace shown in both Free Practice sessions bodes well for the rest of the weekend.

Fabio Di Giannantonio showed an interesting progression that took him all the way up to 18th place in day one, with a remarkable improvement across the two sessions. Great teamwork allowed him to constantly improved his feeling with the Desmosedici GP21 machine on one of the most demanding tracks on the calendar.

4th ENEA BASTIANINI #23 (2’02.284s)
“I was able to recover the feeling I had at the start of the year, which we basically missed only in Argentina. We’re surely competitive although there’s till work to do. We performed really well on the single lap and that’s very important ahead of tomorrow. We still need to focus on the braking area and on long corners – but as I said the overall set-up is already there. During my best lap I got distracted a little due to a crash at 11 by another rider, meaning we could have done even a little better. We still have to make a decision regarding tyres: I liked the harder option at the front-end, but it’s too early to choose.”

18th - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO (2’04.367s)
“We started off quite badly this morning, but we worked well, and with some important changes to the bike I was able to get more confident aboard my Ducati. I need to avoid focusing too on lap-time performances and results and rather think about finding the best feeling aboard the bike… the rest will come.”

Today, in the Gresini pit-box there was a chance to do a little “time travel” between past and present with Toni Elias, who took part in quite a special photoshoot. 2006 and 2022 got together in the name of Fausto, to celebrate the last two MotoGP race wins by Gresini Racing.

SPECIAL GUEST – TONI ELIAS
“To be wearing those leathers again was absolutely fantastic. This is part of my life and surely a great memory, and I can still feel the emotions of a race that will surely remain in the history books. I would like to thank Gresini Racing for this moment, also because it’s important to celebrate Enea’s victory – maybe this is the best way to remember Fausto. This time is family to me, and it was a pleasure to share this moment with them.”