Fabio Di Giannantonio: “If I have to have the pain, let’s at least try to go fast”

An eighth-place finish for Fabio Di Giannantonio in the Thai MotoGP Sprint might not have matched his results from Australia one week ago, but on the penultimate day of his season the Italian was able to recover what had begun as a tricky weekend in Buriram.

The has encountered problems related to the shoulder injury he picked up in Austria, and which will end his season on Sunday during this weekend’s Thai Grand Prix.

Specifically, on Friday, Di Giannantonio had encountered issues with his body position. On Saturday, he felt he’d been able to rectify that, at least to an extent, for qualifying and the Sprint.

“We started to take a little painkiller for today, and we will continue [with it] tomorrow,” Di Giannantonio said.

“But, I also switched a little bit the mind; let’s say that, if I have to have the pain, let’s at least try to go fast. So, I really forced myself to go through the pain, because I feel pain anyway.

“When I definitely can do it, I can go much faster, but sometimes the pain is too much so I go back in the wrong position and I lose too much.

“This weekend is a fight — with the bike, with the body — but I think I did a good job anyway, so we have to be focused and we have to try to do the maximum even with these conditions.”

Overall, Di Giannantonio was happy with his Saturday. Starting in Q1, Di Giannantonio made it into Q2 and then scored points despite a difficult start to the weekend on Friday, not only with his physical condition but also with his confidence on the bike.

“I’m happy because we turn around completely the weekend from yesterday,” he said.

“Yesterday we were really far in terms of speed and confidence with the bike, and today we made a big step in improvement, so thanks to the team for this because they made an incredible job.

“We also did a good job in qualifying, because in the end we were starting in a good position in the third row, but then I had a lot of problems with the brakes in the race, so I made a lot of mistakes for it.

“It’s a pity because I think that I have the pace to go with Alex Marquez. But, anyway, we have to take all the positives from the Sprint race, that is I think the speed was there and I think we are quite ready for tomorrow, so I expect to quite a good job tomorrow.”