Marini: “The Mugello race was even better than the one in Barcelona” | FP

Another misstep

The critical moment continues Repsol Hondaagain out of the points with both of its drivers also on the occasion of the Italian Grand Prix. While Joan Mir did not reach the finish line, having fallen in the first half of the race, Luca Marini he concluded at 20th place behind Johann Zarco’s HRC. Also in this case, the Frenchman was the only representative of his team to complete the GP, thanks to the fall of his teammate Nakagami.

Progress from Barcelona

The updates made to the aerodynamic package however allowed Marini to get closer to the pace of the top-10 riders, trying towards the end to overtake Zarco in his home GP. A mission not accomplished by the 26-year-old from Urbino, who nevertheless underlined the positive aspects found in the RC213V, to the point of feeling more at ease compared to the last race in Spain, where he had already defined his performance as the ‘best’ since Honda rider: “I believe that this match was even better than the one in Barcelona – he confirmed – in the last seven laps I felt good and my pace was close to that of the first ten. There is certainly still work to do because the distance from the leader is too great, but now we are working in the right direction. It’s a shame we couldn’t give a better performance to the fans, but it will be better in the future. Our base is quite good, we need to continue working on the final details. The test will offer us a good opportunity to experiment.”

Mir also tested positive

Improvements also found by Mireven if the Spaniard’s race ended prematurely at the beginning of the 7th lap after a fall in turn 1: “Honestly I felt the bike was good at the start of the race and I believe there were all the conditions to make progress, so it’s a shame to crash on the seventh lap. I managed to push on the front and was fighting with Pol Espargaro. I could see the group in front of me starting to break away and he and I had a bit of a battle. At turn 1, braking behind him, I lost the front and fell. It’s definitely a shame, but we get back up and prepare for tomorrow’s test to try some things.”