Di Giannantonio fifth in Sepang sprint amid VR46 speed probe
NXTbets Pro | Published On: November 1, 2026
Di Giannantonio speed deficit
The VR46 rider left Sepang with a clear question hanging over his bike after he finished fifth in the 10-lap Malaysian Sprint race. The result kept him in the top five, but the speed deficit remained a concern. Di Giannantonio said he could see the problem in the results and the analysis, but he could not say what caused it. He said something was holding him back in the sprint, and he felt as if he could not show his full potential. Even so, he said he felt good on the bike and was happy with the feel of his VR46 Ducati. That made the issue harder to pin down because his confidence in the machine did not match the straight-line speed deficit. Di Giannantonio qualified sixth at Sepang and was set to start sixth again for the grand prix, which kept him close enough to fight. His comments pointed to a bike that felt good to him despite the straight-line deficit.
Nieto diagnosis uncertainty
VR46 and Ducati were still searching for the source of the straight-line speed loss on Di Giannantonio’s bike, and team manager Pablo Nieto said the deficit was large enough to matter. Nieto said the bike was losing about 7-8 km/h on the straights. He said the team and Ducati did not yet know whether the trouble came from aerodynamics, rider position or the engine. Nieto also said all the engines were supposedly the same, leaving the investigation focused on the details that could change from bike to bike and lap to lap. Nieto said the speed loss would make overtaking difficult at Sepang and at Qatar. That gave the issue a wider reach than one sprint result. For now, VR46 knew the bike had a straight-line speed problem that made overtaking difficult. The next step was figuring out which part of the bike, or which part of the package around it, was causing the loss.
