The Gresini rider overtook championship leader Francesco Bagnaia in the latter stages of Sunday’s 22-lap Qatar GP to score a maiden premier class victory.
It comes as Di Giannantonio currently doesn’t have a place on the 2024 grid, having lost his ride to Marc Marquez.
While a few weeks ago in the frame for a Honda seat, this now looks likely to be going to Luca Marini, while VR46 commented earlier in the Qatar weekend that Di Giannantonio wasn’t an option.
As he chased Bagnaia, Di Giannantonio was given a ‘mapping 8’ message on his dashboard on lap 18.
Previously, this was a coded team order message Ducati issued to Jorge Lorenzo back in 2017 in the last two rounds of that season when team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was fighting for the championship.
But Di Giannantonio says his ‘mapping 8’ call was simply to tell him he didn’t have long left in the race to attack Bagnaia.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect to have Pecco in front in that moment of the race because Pecco was struggling all the weekend,” Di Giannantonio told motogp.com’s After the Flag.
“So, I thought it was someone else in front, but then it was Pecco. So, for sure I had to be a bit careful and I was also sorry because if I can steal some points from him it’s a pity for his championship.
Source: Autosport