"Burning" bike forced di Giannantonio to retire from MotoGP Thai sprint

Fabio di Giannantonio has revealed that he had to voluntarily retire from the Thailand Grand Prix sprint race as his bike was “completely burning” in the excess heat.

The VR46 rider was on the cusp of the top 10 in the half-distance race at Buriram when he mysteriously ran wide at Turn 5 with less than a handful of laps to run, dropping down the order.

As his pace continued to dwindle, he pulled into the pits on lap 11 of 13, becoming one of only two riders alongside Jack Miller to not finish the opening contest of the 2025 MotoGP season.

Speaking afterwards, di Giannantonio explained that his Ducati bike was overheating so much that he suffered several burns to his body and it became unbearable for him to continue.

“What happened is that the bike was burning completely, completely burning,” the Italian said. “I got burns on the hands, on the legs, on the neck.

“[It was] completely burning, like never before. Ducati is one of the coolest bikes, so it's really, really strange.

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“Even yesterday morning I had this kind of situation. We know that it is not a technical issue, the bike was working well, everything was fine.

“But we have to understand I'm the only rider that is burning himself. Other riders complain about the heat, and maybe sometimes the front lever is hot, but for me it was not possible to ride.

“On the straights [my feet] were not on the fairing. I was [riding] with legs open, arms open.

“When I was braking I was putting away both my feet. I was just removing every [body part] from the bike, it was completely burning.”

Explaining his decision to cut his race short, he said: “It was too much. I wanted to continue. But before the last corner I got almost on the right side [of the track].

“So I said ‘okay, I'm out of the points, the bike is burning, I'm racing a lot, the shoulder is feeling, so that's it, I can't anymore - let's save some laps for tomorrow's race’.”

The Aprilia RS-GP has been a particularly difficult bike to ride in the hotter Asian races, with Aleix Espargaro revealing that he had “burned his hands” and was forced to open his visor in last year’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

However, Aprillia’s issues have always affected its entire fleet of bikes, while di Giannantonio was curiously the only Ducati rider to suffer burns at Buriram. The 26-year-old is sure that VR46 will find a solution in time for Sunday’s grand prix.

“I'm really confident about the team and I'm confident that they will fix it,” he added. “We have to find a way to fix it, to find solutions to fix it. I don't want to think that we cannot fix it.

“Also because my colleagues with the same brand are doing the race without this kind of big issue, so we must be like that.

“I'm not that worried. But today it's a pity because we lost a good opportunity to do a good job even with the injury.”

Di Giannantonio is contesting the grand prix a little over two weeks after breaking his collarbone while performing a wheelie in the Sepang test.

Coming into the weekend, he said he was 95 per cent fit but felt that his shoulder was operating at “zero per cent”.