{"id":278110,"date":"2025-11-11T17:46:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T17:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/278110\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T17:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T17:46:08","slug":"one-ducati-stars-portugal-motogp-hopes-dashed-in-the-jungle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/278110\/","title":{"rendered":"One Ducati star\u2019s Portugal MotoGP hopes dashed in \u201cthe jungle\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fabio Di Giannantonio says he was pushed down the field at the start of the MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix after getting caught in the \u201cjungle\u201d in the first corners.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/pertamina-enduro-vr46-racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VR46<\/a> rider started from ninth on the grid last weekend at the Algarve International Circuit, and was able to make good progress in the sprint on the Saturday to fifth.<\/p>\n<p>But hopes of a repeat were dashed on the opening lap, as he slumped to 14th having been muscled down the order by what he termed the \u201cjungle\u201d of the first few corners.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/995149\/fabio-di-giannantonio\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fabio Di Giannantonio<\/a> was able to fight his way through to ninth by lap 11 of 25, but could only advance one spot more after a late pass on a struggling Johann Zarco.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian, who was the leading GP25 at the finish, says less chaos in the first corners could have allowed him to fight further in front.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>However, he laid the blame fully on his lacklustre qualifying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was complicated from the first lap,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe start was quite good, but then the first corner, the third corner, then the fifth corner was a jungle, and I was quite far back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, I got to come back. I did a lot of overtakes, the pace was good, but only eighth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think yes [my race would have been better with less battling in the first few corners], but with ifs and buts, you don\u2019t go anywhere.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, we need to work on the qualifying, to start further in front and avoid this kind of situation on the first laps.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Di Giannantonio hasn\u2019t breached the top two rows in qualifying since the Catalan Grand Prix, where he finished third in the sprint.<\/p>\n<p>He managed to come from 10th in Australia to second in the grand prix, while at Misano he was third in the sprint from seventh.<\/p>\n<p>The VR46 rider only has two front row starts so far in 2025, in Austin and Hungary, both of which yielding podium finishes.<\/p>\n<p>With just the Valencia Grand Prix finale to go, Di Giannantonio remains in a tight battle for sixth in the standings with team-mate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/889477\/franco-morbidelli\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Franco Morbidelli<\/a>, with 12 points separating them.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Despite needing to go for checks in a local hospital after a lap one crash in Portugal, Morbidelli is expected to race this weekend in Valencia.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fabio Di Giannantonio says he was pushed down the field at the start of the MotoGP Portuguese Grand&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,17197,15118,806,805,803,804,15119,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-278110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ducati","11":"tag-fabio-di-giannantonio","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-pertamina-enduro-vr46-racing","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}