Fabio Di Gianantonio rued the fact that Gresini wasn’t “patient” enough with him following his debut rostrum at Phillip Island, remarking that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

The Italian was left without a berth in the premier class for 2024 after the Gresini squad elected to drop him amidst a tough sophomore campaign in the series, Di Gianantonio running as consistently the slowest of the Ducati-equipped pilots for the bulk of the year.

As Honda refugee Marc Marquez was confirmed to be taking over his ride within the Gresini team next season, Di Gianantonio made a key breakthrough with the setup on his machine. He secured points in both the sprint and grand prix races in the Japanese Grand Prix before scoring a best-ever result of fourth in Indonesia.  

Di Gianantonio managed one better to secure a debut podium finish in this weekend’s Australian GP having fought for victory throughout the contest. He admitted post-race that “sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time”, and wished that Gresini had a “little more patience with me” before opting to drop him.  

“Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time, and everything happened so fast with Marc (Marquez) and things so if that hadn’t happened and the team had a little more patience with me things could have been easier,” explained Di Gianantonio.

“It’s only my second year in MotoGP, and other riders have done an incredible job from the start of their careers here but for me, it just took a little more time.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, so you have to work and understand against the best riders in the world and sometimes you just have to trust.

“It isn’t easy, but keeping up the hard work paid off in the end.”

Di Gianantonio added that he “took a little step back” in terms of aggression while fighting for victory in the closing laps with the likes of Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia as “they are fighting for the championship”.  Admitting the race felt “long”, he relished to fight the opportunity to fight up front and described the encounter as a “pure, fun race.”

“It was a long race for sure, as Pecco (Bagnaia) said we weren’t ready to do this long distance on Saturday, but it was a pure, fun race,” continued Di Gianantonio.

“I started well and was fast from the beginning, I tried to manage the rear tyre but I was also trying to push a little bit to not lose too much ground in the first laps.

“Then I caught Brad (Binder) and passed him, so I tried to make a little gap but it was not possible. Also, there was a little bit of wind, and when you were in front it was more difficult to push.

“The two in front were quite strong, and I wanted to overtake Pecco at Turn 4, but he did really well and I saw a little gap but I didn’t want to get into anything as they were fighting for the championship so I took a little step back.

“I knew I could have another opportunity to overtake Jorge later, so I tried to copy Pecco’s moves on me and it worked so it was a good race.”

Gresini became the second MotoGP squad to unveil its war colours for the 2023 season on Saturday morning, with the customer Ducati outfit running a largely unchanged predominantly blue scheme.

Its premier class rider line-up of fresh signing Alex Marquez as well as Fabio Di Gianantonio – who enters his sophomore campaign in the class – were on hand to present the livery from the the Italian organisation’s home country, Gresini heading into its second year as an independent team since splitting from Aprilia at the end of 2021.

Its 2022-specification Desmosedici’s have kept the calm blue base colour the team debuted last year, though this time around features a different red pattern, with the wavy striping seen in ’22 replaced with a more aggressive and racier vertical layout across the side of the machine – a pattern also reflected on the riders leathers.  

Expectations will be high for Gresini’s second year as a Ducati-affiliated team, with the operation coming off the back of a successful ’22 term that saw it score a total of four wins across the year courtesy of now-factory Ducati rider Enea Bastianini, the Italian also securing an impressive third overall in the riders standings.

Di Gianantonio also showed good progression throughout the season, with his main highlight coming with a maiden premier class pole position at his home race at Mugello in Italy.

The Gresini Ducati MotoGP squad has announced that Alex Marquez will join Fabio Di Gianantonio for the 2023 campaign, with Enea Bastianini set to earn a promotion within Ducati’s ranks.

The Italian outfit confirmed its altered line-up at Assen on Sunday ahead of the Dutch TT, with Mugello pole-man Di Gianantonio being retained by the team for what will be his sophomore term in the premier class, while Marquez will campaign something other than a Honda for the first time in his fourth season in the championship.

Gresini announced the duo in a Twitter post at Assen on Sunday morning, with Marquez describing his switch to the squad as “crucial” in order to help him “recover the same type of motivation I had when I first joined the class.”

“I’m really happy to announce that I’ll be joining Team Gresini MotoGP, and I’m also very excited to be starting this new adventure,” said Marquez.

“It was crucial for me to change in order to recover the same type of motivation I had when I first joined this class.

“This was the best option for me, with a team that helped writing the history of this championship. I would like to thank Nadia, Carlo and all the GR staff for believing in me.

“I still have half a season left to do my best before starting 2023 with top motivation.”

Marquez’s forced defection to the Ducati customer operation comes after current team LCR has reportedly elected to sign Suzuki refugee Alex Rins to ride its Castrol-sponsored RC213-V, with a spot left open within Gresini due to the imminent promotion of Bastianini to either the Pramac team or Ducati’s factory organisation depending on what the manufacturer decides.

Marquez has struggled for results on Honda’s temperamental machine across his two-and-a-half seasons so far, the 2019 Moto2 world champion scoring a pair of runner-up finishes in his rookie campaign with the factory Repsol Honda team though has managed to score just a sole top five since being moved to LCR for 2021.   

He currently sits a lowly 18^th in the rider’s standings mid-way through 2022, 12 points adrift of team-mate Takaaki Nakagami having scored a best result of seventh in the Portuguese Grand Prix.

Di Gianantonio meanwhile has been building nicely during his rookie MotoGP season, his highlight of scoring pole for his home race at Mugello signifying an upturn in form that has also seen him out-qualify the highly-rated Bastianini for the three successive races since then.

He achieved a maiden career top ten result last time out at the Sachsenring by taking the chequered flag eighth, one that helped lift him into second in the rookie standings – albeit 19 markers adrift of leader and fellow Ducati pilot Marco Bezzecchi.

Fabio Di Gianantonio stormed to a shock maiden MotoGP pole in tricky conditions at Mugello, the Italian leading fellow rookie Marco Bezzecchi in their home event.

Having escaped Q1 in similarly stormy conditions that saw the track left damp – facilitating the need for the riders to use slicks rather than wets – Di Gianantonio was a man on a mission as Q2 got underway properly following an early red flag as a result of a nasty high-side for Honda’s Marc Marquez, his bike spectacularly setting alight shortly after the impact.

Di Gianantonio came out the blocks quickest as the session resumed around ten minutes later as fired in a 1:46.907s, though a flurry of improvements would see no less than four riders hit the front in only a few minutes, with the Gresini man and VR46’s Bezzecchi battling it out at the death.

With Bezzecchi having posted a 1:46.244s on his final flyer, Di Gianantonio held a slender advantage over his countryman three-quarters of the way around his last effort, though a blistering final sector saw him bang in a 1:46.156s tour to secure a first ever pole position in the premier class in just his eighth event.

Bezzecchi was therefore forced to settle for second ahead of team-mate Luca Marini, the three Italian’s completing an all Ducati front row in the manufacturers home event.

Johann Zarco and Francesco Bagnaia imporved Ducati’s day further still as they completed the top five on their examples, with reigning MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo finishing off the second row for Yamaha.

Aleix Espargaro was seventh for Aprilia ahead of LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami, with the factory Honda RC213-V of Pol Espargaro ninth.

Enea Bastianini rounded out the top ten on the sister Gresini Ducati, while Jorge Martin and Marquez bagged 11^th and 12^th as the final two riders to take part in Q2.

Jack Miller narrowly missed out on a pole shootout chance after drafting Marquez into Q2 towards the end of the opening segment, the Aussie heading Ducati test rider Michele Pirro who managed a solid 14^th in his first start of 2022.  

KTM looked handy to get both its factory riders into Q2 at one point as it looked like rain was baout to soak the circuit while Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira ran first and second, though the duo were unable to hold position as the rain stayed away – leaving them 15^th and 16^th in the end.

Suzuki’s pairing also struggled for laptime on the tricky Mugello surface, Joan Mir ending up a lowly 17^th while Alex Rins once again will have to put on a Sunday charge from 21^st.

Having looked strong throughout practice, Maverick Vinales struggled to make his RS-GP work in the difficult climactic conditions and lagged to 24^th ahead of only Tech 3 KTM’s Raul Fernandez and RNF Racing Yamaha’s Andrea Dovizioso.

Gresini Racing has unleashed the livery it will run in 2022 on its pair of Ducati GP21 MotoGP machines in its first season as an independent team since 2015.

Shown off in an online launch event, the Italian squad’s paint scheme features prominently the light blue colour shown on several occasions by Gresini since it revealed it would split from Aprilia and once again go it solo in the premier class, its riders Enea Bastianini and rookie Fabio Di Gianantonio on hand to unveil the Desmosedici’s.

The squad’s new scheme also features several red flashes as a compliment to the calmer light blue tone, the livery having been designed by Aldo Drudi.

Gresini also becomes the first team taking part in the 2022 MotoGP world championship to reveal its campaign.

Bastianini starts his sophomore MotoGP term firmly as one to watch following an impressive maiden year as reigning Moto2 world champion that culminated in a pair of rostrums at Misano towards the end of the season despite having to run a 2019-spec Ducati, leaving him 11^th overall and a full 61 points ahead of team-mate Luca Marini.

Di Gianantonio meanwhile make the step up into the premier class following three years in Moto2 with Speed Up and latterly the Gresini outfit, the Italian enjoying his strongest run in 2021 as he scored a first victory at Jerez en-route to seventh in the final riders classification.

The Gresini MotoGP squad will switch to Ducati machinery for its return to independent team status for the 2022 MotoGP campaign, and has signed Enea Bastianini and Moto2 rider Fabio Di Giannantonio.

Gresini founder and owner Fausto Gresini announced at the end of last year that his organisation would return to being a private operation following six years of running Aprilia’s factory operation, with the Italian marque moving their racing programme in-house.

He sadly passed away in February following a battle with Covid-19, with wife Nadia Padovani taking over the running of the team shortly after his death, working to secure the operation’s MotoGP future.

It has not been announced which specification of Desmosedici Gresini will utilise, though it will most likely receive the same year-old machinery that current Ducati customer Avintia uses.

Gresini has also attracted a new title sponsor in Flex-Box to back its switch back to independent status.

Current Avintia rookie Bastianini will make the switch when his current team exits the category at the end of 2021, while Di Giannantonio will make his premier class bow, having competed with Gresini’s Moto2 team this season.

“It’s a very emotional moment for each of us,” said Padovani.

“In previous months, our efforts merged with a strong emotional push to shape the future of Gresini Racing, and now are immensely proud and happy to make the official announcement.

“It is a project born out of continuity and based on values upon which Fausto built this amazing institution.

“My thank you goes first and foremost to [Dorna CEO] Carmelo Ezpeleta for making sure we never felt alone during these months, to Ducati for trusting our projects, to Flex-Box who joined us in this new challenge as title sponsor and obviously to Fabio and Enea.

“I’m sure they will give their best to wave the Gresini Racing banner high.”

Gresini’s announcement means that Ducati will have eight bikes on the 2022 grid, with Valentino Rossi’s VR46 operation looking set to take over Avintia’s machines and entries at the end of the season.  

Next year’s MotoGP campaign will be the first for Gresini running Ducati equipment.

The squad used Hondas on a customer basis from its debut in the class in 2002 before moving to run Aprilia’s bikes from 2015.

Aprilia will run its own team from next season, with Aleix Espargaro remaining with the marque alongside a yet-to-be decided team-mate,. Andrea Dovizioso is its main target as he looks to complete further testing with Aprilia across the rest of this year.

Fabio Di Giannantonio eased to a first Moto2 victory after dominating the Spanish Moto2 Grand Prix at Jerez, the Gresini man finishing over two seconds clear of Marco Bezzecchi.

The Italian made a strong start from the middle of the front row to snatch the lead away from pole-man Remy Gardner on the run to Turn 1, immediately looking to put daylight between himself and the chasing pack behind.

His cause was aided by a struggling Gardner, the Ajo racer at times lapping over half-a-second a lap slower than Di Giannantonio as he came under pressure from the likes of team-mate Raul Fernandez and VR46’s Bezzecchi.

Di Giannantonio’s leading gap had swelled to 2.7 seconds by the time Fernandez finally dispatched Gardner for second at around a thirds distance, the rookie straight away able to match the times of the leader.

Fernandez though began to struggle for speed as the race entered its final stanza, first being passed for the runners-up spot by a charging Bezzecchi before being put under pressure by a recovering Gardner and Sam Lowes.

Di Giannantonio meanwhile controlled his lead expertly to take the chequered flag 2.096s clear of Bezzecchi to claim his first ever intermediate class win, Gresini’s first across all classes since the passing of team owner Fausto in February.

The battle for the final rostrum spot went right down to the wire as a fading Fernandez doggedly clung on, Lowes grabbing the position with a bold move at Turn 2-Gardner following through to fourth as the Marc VDS pilot forced Fernandez to sit up.

Lowes ultimately had enough pace to keep clear of the Aussie over the final couple of tours, completing the podium despite dropping to seventh on the opening circulation after a poor start.

Gardner came home fourth ahead of Fernandez, while Xavi Vierge survived race-long pressure from Honda Team Asia man Ai Ogura to claim sixth, the Japanese rookie once again achieving a strong result in seventh.

Joe Roberts had a quiet Spanish outing to claim eighth on his Italtrans-run Kalex, while Aron Canet and Marcel Schrotter completed the top ten.

Augusto Fernandez was an early retirement on the second Marc VDS challenger after running third in the early goings, the one-time Moto2 race winner crashing out at Turn 6 shortly after being relieved of the spot by name-sake Raul.

Jake Dixon failed to make the start as a result of his nasty warm-up crash that facilitated a hospital visit where it was found he had suffered a concussion, the Brit having been due to start tenth for the encounter.

Gardner continues to lead the Moto2 riders points standings following his run to fourth, though now by a reduced three point margin over Lowes, while Di Giannantonio stays fifth behind Fernandez and Bezzecchi but now just 17 behind Gardner.