Fabio Di Giannantonio suffered a shoulder injury during a crash in Austria and will be out of the season for surgery. After the Thailand GP, the VR 46 team needs a new rider who could drive in place of the injured Giannantonio. Everyone expected the veteran MotoGP rider and 7-time world champion Valentino Rossi to make a comeback to the sport and ride the bike in place of his team rider. But Rossi seems to be very busy in car racing as his arrival is now out of the question.
No Rossi, Then who?
Two riders will replace the injured Giannantonio, one Andrea Lannone who will race at the Malaysian Grand Prix. The other one will be Michele Pirro who will race at Valencia. Lannone’s arrival was approved by Valentino Rossi himself, who is the team owner of the VR 46 Ducati team. Andrea will carry his service at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. The Italian racer last raced in MotoGP in 2019 before he got banned for using banned drugs.
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He raced seven seasons in MotoGP until his final season in 2019. He was banned for failing the doping test and got punished for four years which ended his top-premier class racing career. After serving the ban he joined the WorldSBK tournament with Ducati and he took his first victory in Aragon this year. He will ride for the team until 2025. He is currently standing seventh in the SBK championship. In Valencia, Michele Pirro will be racing instead of Giannantonio as a substitute rider.
Fabio di Giannantonio took the tough decision to leave before the last two races to have some good recovery time before the start of the 2025 season. He will be fully fit before the start of the 2025 season and when he arrives back to the VR 46 team he will have an upgraded factory GP25 Ducati bike in hand along with his Teammate Marco Bezzecchi.
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