Braking gains help di Giannantonio to fastest time, "can be one of the top guys" at Le Mans

A day after team-mate Marco Bezzecchi had taken VR46’s first MotoGP podium of the season, Fabio di Giannantonio put his machine on top of the Jerez testing timesheets.

di Giannantonio was quickest for much of the day courtesy of a 1m 36.405s set on his 23rd of 70 laps.

Having taken a step in braking and corner entry with the GP23, last year's Qatar race winner feels he can be among the 'top guys' next time at Le Mans.

“It always seems to be a surprise to people that I’m fast!” di Giannantonio said of the reaction to his Jerez test performance.

“I think we are strong, the team is fantastic and also today we've made an incredible job. Ducati also gave us some updates. So it was important to try many things and we've been fast.

“I always try to improve my riding style but also, with the bike, we were missing a little bit of stopping, especially in the last part of braking, because the GP23 pushes a lot the front.

“So it’s difficult to take the right line, preparing well for the [corner] exit. And today we improved in that area. So that's really good.

“We can go to Le Mans with a lot of positives. And if we confirm all the good things from this test, I think we can be one of the top guys.”

The Italian feels his results this season (best of sixth) don’t correlate with the speed shown at other points of each weekend, although his 34 points are still double the amount he scored at the same stage last year.

“We’ve had a few issues, but they were not about the setup," di Giannantonio said.

“I think we've been fast, honestly. I'm happy about my start of the season. Also this [Jerez] weekend we've been quite fast, just in the race I missed the first 2-3 laps because I was struggling a little bit with rear tyre.”

The first challenge for di Giannantonio and Bezzecchi at Le Mans will be to try and score VR46’s first Sprint race points of the season.