Fabio Di Giannantonio says his hard fight with Marc Marquez in the MotoGP Indonesian Grand Prix was “a pity” because “we battled too much”, which hurt the VR46 rider’s race.

Marquez and Di Giannantonio fought hard over seventh place in the first half of the 27-lap Mandalika grand prix, with the latter eventually coming out on top.

Di Giannantonio – who was the the only rider to use the soft rear tyre – then crashed out on lap nine when he lost the front of his GP23 at Turn 10.

While their battle was one of the most exciting parts of Sunday’s grand prix, Di Giannantonio felt it compromised him too much.

“We had a lot of info and data from the engineers, and from yesterday [in the sprint] it was only possible for me to use the soft on the rear because my wear [in the sprint] was not that much,” Di Giannantonio said of his decision to go on the soft rear tyre.

“So we said ‘ok, we can do it, maybe if we be a bit more calm with the throttle and also if the pace is less intense then I think we can finish the race’.

“But also I had to recover a lot places at the beginning because it’s when you use the soft tyre the most.

“So we did it. A pity that we lost a lot of time in the beginning with Marc, because I was much faster.

“Yeah, we battled too much for what I think. Once I overtook him definitively, I was fast, I was doing a fast lap but – and we still don’t really understand what happened – I just lost the front at Turn 10.

“It was for sure a strong braking, but it was nothing really out of this world.

“Anyway, we crashed unfortunately but I think we have to be optimistic. We were fast all of the weekend and in the race we gave a good show, so we have to be happy.”

Marquez told the media – including Crash.net – that he felt Di Giannantonio “exaggerated a bit” during their battle, but brushed it off as “racing”.

Di Giannantonio was able take a point on the VR46 Ducati in the sprint using the soft rear tyre and was convinced after 90 minutes of data analysis on Sunday morning that he could get it to do a grand prix distance.  

“For sure, we had the data to the 15th lap because the sprint was 13 laps,” he added.

“As much as I saved the tyre in these 15 laps, the race was just surviving.

“But I think it was possible to do it because I was really, really calm with the throttle.

“Also before the race I spent an hour and a half watching the data to understand where to save the temperature of the rear tyre. So, I think we had a really good position to do a good race.”