Di Giannantonio, missed opportunity: he falls at Sachsenring, first ‘zero’ of the season. Blow to World Championship dreams

First Sunday ‘zero’

At the Sachsenring, in the German GP, comes the first seasonal ‘zero’ in a Sunday race for Fabio Di Giannantonio in this 2026. The Roman rider of VR46 had so far been the most consistent and least ‘faulty’ among the riders competing for the World Championship and in the top-10 of the standings he had also been the only one to always score points on Sundays, even in Hungary where he was taken down in the big crash at turn 1 by Jorge Martin and still finished in 12th place. This time instead for #49 came the retirement, caused by his first, real mistake of the season.

Read more GP Germany 2026, race report

Diggia – on his second crash of the day after this morning’s Warm Up – slid out at turn 10 during the fourth lap. A slide that came in a relatively transitional phase of the race, due to a front-end closure, and which was perhaps caused by a certain nervousness of the VR46 rider. Di Giannantonio had in fact started badly, was in fifth place (after starting from third on the grid) behind the two Aprilia Trackhouse riders Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura and was struggling to attack the two Noale bikes.

Read more MotoGP 2026 Riders World Championship after the German GP

Today’s mistake is heavy in championship terms, because it prevents Di Giannantonio from gaining ‘free’ points on Marco Bezzecchi – absent this weekend due to injury – and risks making him lose points to all his direct rivals in the standings, starting obviously with Marc Marquez. Furthermore, the ‘zero’ comes in a strong weekend for the Roman, in which he could easily have fought for at least the third step of the podium.

Read more GP Germany 2026, finishing order: Marquez still king of the Sachsenring, 18 points behind Martin (5th). Ogura and Fernandez on the podium, Pecco 6th