MotoGP | Marini loses point: penalized for tire pressure

Hondas remain at the tail end of the MotoGP pack, but at least Luca Marini is starting to make progress in the internal hierarchy of the Japanese manufacturer. At Silverstone he came close to being the best RC213V in both the Sprint and the long race, narrowly bowing only to Johann Zarco.

For the second race in a row, after the one at Sachsenring, the driver from the Marche region had also managed to take home a small point, crossing the finish line in 15th position. However, this result was taken away from him a few minutes after the end of the race: first, the indication appeared that Marini was under investigation for having raced with a tire pressure value lower than the minimum allowed by Michelin.

Shortly afterwards, the stewards’ note arrived in black and white, inflicting a 16-second penalty on him, as required by the regulations, which dropped him to 17th place, with only Remy Gardner behind him, who is riding as a wild card for Yamaha this weekend.

“On 4 August 2024 during the MotoGP race at the Monster Energy British Grand Prix you were found to be using tyre pressures lower than the parameters required by the official supplier. This violates Article 2.4.4.9 of the FIM Grand Prix Regulations,” the Sewards Panel note explains.

It then continues: “For these reasons, the FIM MotoGP Stewards Panel has imposed a penalty of 16 seconds to be added to your Monster Energy British Grand Prix race time in accordance with Article 3.2.1 of the FIM Grand Prix Regulations.”

For his part, Marini did not make a fuss, because Honda’s focus at the moment should not be the points, but trying to improve the performance of the RC213V: “The Stewards Panel knows in real time the pressure of all the riders, so if they call you it means you’re out. But it’s not a problem, because we’re not here to fight for the championship, so the points don’t make the difference in our work”.

“At the moment we need to think more about the positive aspects of this weekend and try to understand how to solve the vibration that is limiting our performance. There is a lot of work to do, but I think we are going in the right direction and let’s see if there will be any updates in Austria”, Luca concluded.