The Italian proclaimed it to be “one of the biggest gifts life has given me,” as he spoke to the media on Thursday in Thailand. The two-time premier class race winner rode in place of the injured Joan Mir with Suzuki, and having spent his premier class career on Ducati, KTM and Ioda-Suter and ART machinery, he immediately took a shine to the GSX-RR, saying he wouldn’t have been so quick to walk away from the sport if he had been on it earlier in his career.