Ducati Sporting Club UK > News Items > Ducati Press Releases > Double podium for Piero Ricciuti, second in Race 1 and Race 2 of the fourth round of the MotoGP eSport Championship

[webteam]

MotoGP | Friday 23 September 2022

Double podium for Piero Ricciuti, second in Race 1 and Race 2 of the fourth round of the MotoGP eSport Championship

Piero Ricciuti scored two more podium finishes in the penultimate round of the MotoGP eSport Global Series 2022 Championship, contested online this afternoon with the MotoGP22 video game.

The virtual version of the Chang International Circuit in Buriram (Thailand) was the stage of Race 1, which saw the Ducati Lenovo eSport Team e-Gamer start with the fourth fastest time, from the second row. Thanks to a good start, PieroRicciuti55 took second place immediately on the first lap to then chase down "adriaan_26" in the first position. However, due to a small mistake towards the middle of the race, PieroRicciut55 couldn't get close enough to his rival to attack him and finally had to settle for second.

In the second race, held at the Twin Ring Motegi, where the sixteenth round of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship will also take place this weekend, Ricciuti took his first pole position and then secured another crucial second place in the race. The e-gamer from the Marche region could not regain the same feeling he had in qualifying. After finishing third on the first lap, he then recovered another position to cross the line second.

Thanks to these two results, Piero moves up to fifth place in the championship standings, which will end on 4th November in Valencia, when the eleven players will once again compete live in the studio set up at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo. The final round will feature a race on the virtual version of the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit (Argentina) and one on the Mandalika Circuit (Indonesia).

Piero Ricciuti aka PieroRicciuti55 (#5 Ducati Lenovo eSport Team)
"This was my best round of the 2022 season so far. Race 1 was great: after starting with the fourth fastest time, I quickly recovered two positions and tried to chase Adrian in the first place. Unfortunately, I went wide at one point, preventing me from catching him. In any case, I am delighted because we came very close to a first victory this year. In Race 2, after I got the first pole position of my career, I didn't find the same feeling again: I couldn't brake as I wanted to, and this prevented me from catching up with the first after I had managed to take second place. Thanks to these two podiums, we have recovered one position in the Championship, and the fight for the title is still wide open. There will be double points in the Valencia round, so the chances are there. I will give everything to try to win the title!".