SECOND CHANCE

TWO

Gianni Di Giannantonio's POV

Yesterday afternoon I reached my motorhome, where I will now spend 4 days thanks to my first MotoGP race. When I woke up this morning, my thoughts were fully focused on the training that awaits me in less than 4 hours. Unfortunately, I have torn ligaments in my left knee, so this race will be quite difficult for me maybe the next one will be too. I shouldn't even be driving in this condition, but it's me, so I drive under all conditions.

Like every morning, I did everything necessary and my morning routine. It took me about an hour and a half in total and then I was on crutches to my first official meeting with the Gresini team and my new strategist. When I ran down the stairs, I texted my brother, who will ride with me in the team, if he was already there. When he wrote back a simple "Yes", I went straight to the team.

Everyone greeted me with a smile and I listened to all the information they gave me, of course I already took the winter tests with them and all that, but only today I found out who my new strategist is. His name was Matthias Ricc, quite a young guy with experience so I had no problem with that.

Two hours before training on the bike itself, I had a normal conditioning session with Fabio, as is my routine before every race. I tried to put as little stress on my knee as possible, which I did well and I felt really great to get on the bike and do a good FP1. Fabio was training, a little more demanding, but I still tried to keep up with him and it was really amazing to train side by side with my brother again in the same category as 2 years ago.

40 minutes before training I finally went to change into my overalls and then I went to see my brother Fabio to practice my reflexes some more. When I was already at the last exercise, Fabio spoke to me.

"Do you think this is a good idea G.?" his gaze went to my knee

"Honestly I don't think anything at all, but you know me, I go through everything, I'll be fine I promise" I looked at him and put my hand on his shoulder "if it doesn't work out, I'll resign" he smiled at me and then hugged me

"Okay, promise me you'll take care of yourself"

"As always" I smiled and then decided to follow my Moto2 teammate, Augusto Fernández.

Augusto Fernández's POV

When I stepped into the paddock for the first time yesterday as a MotoGP rider, it was the most amazing feeling I've ever experienced. But I was most happy that Gianni joined me in this category, unfortunately we are not in the same team as in Moto2, but we are still together in this sport.

This morning was a little hectic because I overslept. Which is already a classic for me, but it still derailed me. So I tried to do everything as quickly as possible, so my morning routine wasn't much, but it didn't bother me in any way at this moment and I was glad that I made it to the meeting. When I arrived in the pits, I saw my whole team, my new teammate Pol Espargaro and also my new strategist, as my former strategist unfortunately quit that job. After all the important information and things that Pol and I received, I leaned back in my corner on the chair and immersed myself in my thoughts about the training and in general about the fact that I am now sitting in the MotoGP pit and preparing for my first practice. When I was drowning in my thoughts, it was Pol who pulled me out of them.

"I'm going for a walk on the circuit, do you want to join me?" he asked me with a smile on his face

I put the phone down and looked at him

"Of course I'll be happy to go" he nodded and I waited for what would come out of him as the next words

"In about 10 minutes at the start?" I just nodded slightly and Pol went to change into his sports clothes just like me.

We walk the entire circuit in less than an hour, it took us about an hour, just by walking at a pretty fast pace. After running back into the pits, I was still standing in front of the pits with Pol, what he told me surprised me a lot.

"To be honest, I'm so glad you're my new teammate, we're going to make a good pair," he clenched his fist at me and I bumped his fist lightly.

"I think so too and the same applies to my side" with smiles on our faces we said goodbye and went to change into jumpsuits.

As I was putting on my helmet, Gianni came up to me.

"Hello" the smile on her face created a smile on mine as well

"Hi"

"I came to wish you good luck for your first training" she hugged me and I hugged her back

"Thank you Gianni, you too and push like a bastard" I laughed and she with me, it was our thing before every practice, qualifying and race, but then I remembered that she was injured

"What about your knee, it can handle it, I don't want you to get hurt any more," I put my hands on her shoulders

"Yeah the knee is fine so don't worry let's show them who the fucking bastards are" I laughed at this

Then we said a few more words and Gianni went back to her box and after a while we entered the first practice side by side.

It was quite challenging to catch up with the pace of the experienced riders, but somehow Gianni and I didn't see a problem with it and in the first practice I finished 6th and Gianni was just a few thousandths behind me in 7th.