Bastianini fights to 11th in the wet #IndonesianGP, 18th for Di Giannantonio

A lot of things happened at the Mandalika International Circuit today and in the end, the race was held under the pouring rain. Both riders of Team Gresini Racing MotoGP did not enjoy a good start to the encounter, but then learned a lot from this experience at the Indonesian Grand Prix.

Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Giannantonio both needed a few laps to get the right feeling and pace, and in the second half of the race were able to bounce back as the #33 came close to a top-ten finish, while the #49 was not too far from the top 15.

The result achieved in today’s shortened, 20-lap race allows the ‘Beast’ to remain on top of the classification with 30 points, while Diggia gathered a tremendous amount of experience in his learning year in the series.

ENEA BASTIANINI

It took a while to get the right feeling, especially as in the early laps I couldn’t see anything due to how wet the track was, so I struggled a bit. Then little by little I was able to make my way back, I found my rhythm and I was fast – especially in the last ten laps. Unfortunately when I reached the group of seven riders ahead I was pushed wide at turn two by Darryn Binder after I passed all of them – and that made be go back to the end of the group. I was able once again to recover and in the end an eleventh place is not too bad: I could have finished eighth and I’m sorry for that, but it was important to score some points – and in the end it was a good race.

FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO

I can’t tell you I’m happy because I would have loved to be in the front group. Today I was able to start from a much better position on the grid so I would have liked to play my part an maybe keep that position at the line. Unfortunately it started to rain heavily before the race and that was a completely new thing for me to ride a MotoGP bike in full-wet conditions. I found my rhythm only at the end of the race, when we were too far to make any progress in terms of position. I’m happy anyway because it all works for my experience, but I’m kicking myself at the same time because I wanted to do well; we’re struggling a bit at the moment, but I guess it’s part of the learning process.