Gresini Racing’s Fabio di Giannantonio on Sunday stormed to a maiden MotoGP victory at the Qatar Grand Prix, denying championship leader Francesco Bagnaia in the dying stages, while title contender Jorge Martin finished a lowly 10th.
Di Giannantonio, who does not have a MotoGP ride next season, threw caution to the wind at the floodlit Lusail International Circuit and took on Bagnaia to claim the win, while pole-sitter Luca Marini of VR46 Racing finished third.
Victory marked a special weekend for Di Giannantonio, who also finished second in Saturday’s sprint.
Photo: Reuters
“Man, what do I say. It’s been an incredible weekend the race was unbelievable. I was struggling with the front [tire], but I saw Pecco [Bagnaia] making little mistakes,” Di Giannantonio said, grinning in a post-race interview.
“This was revenge, first for myself and others with me. Now we did it, now I’m a MotoGP winner,” he said.
Bagnaia lost the lead with four laps to go, but the Ducati rider has still put one hand on the rider’s championship after extending his lead over Martin to 21 points.
The Italian can even secure back-to-back world titles in Saturday’s sprint at the season-ending Valencia Grand Prix next weekend.
Bagnaia and Martin started fourth and fifth on the grid — separated by seven points — but it was the Ducati rider who had the perfect launch as he shot off the line to take the lead from Marini going into turn one.
Martin nearly lost control of his Pramac bike due to wheel-spin, dropping to eighth in the opening lap, and he was forced to pick his way through the pack as Bagnaia surged ahead.
Di Giannantonio did not let up. With four laps to go he ignored team warnings and made his move to get past Bagnaia.
The Ducati rider nearly threw it away on the next lap with a risky move to retake the lead at turn one where he ran wide and then backed off while shaking his head, knowing second place was better than nothing.
Once Bagnaia saw Martin had finished 10th, there were no hard feelings, as he and several other riders stopped their bikes by the side of the track to congratulate an emotional Di Giannantonio.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS