Di Giannantonio Battles Rib Pain, Finishes 18th at Motegi
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 4, 2026
Di Giannantonio crash
Di Giannantonio’s Japanese MotoGP weekend took a hit on the first lap of the sprint at Motegi, when Alex Marquez braked too late at Turn 3 and took out Di Giannantonio and Pedro Acosta. The crash sent Di Giannantonio to the medical center, but medical checks there showed no serious injury. Even with that initial clean bill of health, the incident changed the rest of his weekend. He was still dealing with the effects of the wreck when Sunday arrived, and the damage showed up in the result as much as in the pain. Di Giannantonio started from sixth on the grid and finished 18th in the Japanese Grand Prix, a falloff that matched the physical trouble he described after the sprint crash. The sequence left him trying to manage a race weekend that had already gone sideways before the main event even began.
Di Giannantonio pain
Di Giannantonio said the crash left him struggling to ride normally on Sunday, and the problems started on the right side of his body. He said the pain there had not eased enough after sleeping, and his ribs were the worst of it. He described the feeling as “like having a knife in my ribs” all day, a blunt sign of how hard it was for him to get through the race. His hip also kept him from getting into a natural position on the bike, and he said he had trouble moving freely on his right side. That made even routine actions difficult and turned a standard race day into, in his words, a complicated one. He also said he had difficulty doing “the normal things,” and he was clear that his ribs had not fully recovered, which meant he could not ride naturally. The pain shaped everything about his day at Motegi, from how he sat on the bike to how he handled the demands of the race itself. What might have been a straightforward attempt to salvage points instead became a test of whether he could simply manage the physical strain long enough to reach the finish.
Di Giannantonio recovery
The crash did more than affect Di Giannantonio’s weekend, it put him in a race against time to be ready for the Indonesia Grand Prix at Mandalika the following week. He said he hoped to recover as much as possible before the Mandalika weekend and planned to do physical therapy to recover from the shock. The timing matters for him, too, because Mandalika is the home Grand Prix for sponsor Pertamina, which gives the trip an added layer of importance. Di Giannantonio said he hoped to be ready for Sunday’s race, but that hope sits against the reality of how much his right side still hurt at Motegi. The situation leaves him with a short window to get his body back into shape after a crash that showed no serious injury but still left him in obvious discomfort. For now, the focus is on recovery, treatment and whatever progress he can make before the next round comes around.
