brushed off a scary incident involving Alex Marquez and Pedro Acosta<\/a> to score his second career MotoGP victory in a shortened race.<\/p>\n ![\"Fabio](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779193210_32_gng_1317021_hires_1600x900.jpg\")
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Fabio di Giannantonio hit by debris from Alex Marquez’s bike, 2026 Catalan MotoGP.<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n
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His, as well as VR46\u2019s, first since 2023, Di Giannantonio did so with nine-tiime grand prix world champion Valentino Rossi in attendance.<\/p>\n
Speaking about this, and his celebrations with Rossi, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to have Vale here.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe helped us so much during the weekend, and celebrating with him, a win, is something I could never dream about.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, for it to happen, it was amazing. When I stopped, it was a pretty emotional moment on track [with him].<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a crazy day, believe me, a crazy day. But I\u2019m happy for many things.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Is Di Giannantonio a legitimate title contender now?<\/p>\n
Amid a tough start to the campaign for Ducati at large, Di Giannantonio\u2019s consistency means he is just 24 points behind championship leader Marco Bezzecchi after six rounds.<\/p>\n
While he says his aim this year was to be in a leading position in the standings, Di Giannantonio believes it\u2019s too early to talk about his title prospects.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, for sure, the goal of this season for me was to try to reach this kind of title [championship contender], let\u2019s say,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I have a great opportunity this year with a great team, with a great bike, so I\u2019m giving it my all to be that competitive, to be a title contender.<\/p>\n
![\"Fabio](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gng_1316810_hires_1600x900.jpg\")
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Fabio di Giannantonio, 2026 Catalan MotoGP.<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think we are doing a good job – not a great job, because we are third at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we are doing a good job. We are trying to be as close possible to the Aprilias.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, yeah, I just want to continue working.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think also it\u2019s a bit early to make some sentences about this season, but for sure we\u2019ve shown an amazing level at all the tracks we\u2019ve been to until now.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the goal is to continue like this. I want to continue growing, learning, for the team, for the bike, for myself, and try to be a better rider.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThen, for sure, when you work in this way, it can be the way to be a title contender. So, let\u2019s keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fabio Di Giannantonio says MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi \u201chelped us a lot\u201d to score his Catalan Grand Prix…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,15118,806,805,803,804,15119,85,20420],"class_list":["post-680756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fabio-di-giannantonio","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-pertamina-enduro-vr46-racing","tag-sports","tag-valentino-rossi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680756","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=680756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}