The home race was one of the most solid of the season for Luca Marini, who with the fourth position conquered at the checkered flag equaled his best result this year. In Misano the party is all Italian, with the double Ducati signed by Bagnaia-Bastianini, there is also room for the driver of the Mooney VR46 team, who managed to keep in the wake of the top three for almost the entire race. Only Maverick Vinales slipped between himself and his brand mates, the only rider capable of breaking Ducati’s hegemony this weekend.
“We have to be satisfied, the race pace was really good. We worked well over the weekend and that made a difference. On Sunday we managed to find something more on the bike that allowed me to feel even more at ease. I tried to stay as close as possible to Vinales, he made a lot of inaccuracies in corner entry, but the first three were really impregnable, they had another step. I hoped until the end for a stroke of luck for the podium, so it wasn’t, but I’m happy all the same. Now we have the tests and we have to make good use of them to try out new solutions and try to make other steps forward also in view of Aragon, which is a somewhat difficult track for me ”.
The podium was really close, however Pecco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini kept a frenzied pace throughout the race, so much so that even Maverick Vinales was more late in the final race. However, the top three had something more than Marini, who missed the podium for a very short time: “To stay ahead of Vinales, perhaps we are missing a tenth, while for Pecco and Enea we are missing two. I think riders like the three of them, and also Quartararo, haven’t changed the bike too much from Friday to today. As far as we are concerned, we are looking for the solution to be competitive right away during the weekend. For me it is important to start with an ideal set up and show potential from the first free practice ”.
In some way, Marini played a “team game”, taking points away from Fabio Quartararo. The Frenchman, still leader of the world championship, sees himself dangerously approached by a perfect Pecco Bagnaia in this phase of the season and is experiencing various difficulties. Fifth at the finish, he remained behind the rider from Tavullia: “We are intelligent, we know that we are also here to help. But helping out also means getting to the front and that’s what we all want to do. We are here to win and if you are fighting for the victory or the podium it is normal to try to be in front of a rider like Quartararo ”.
The show is therefore not lacking and also in Misano the protagonists of the MotoGP have given intense emotions. However, Valentino Rossi’s farewell seems to have coincided with a sharp decrease in interest in the premier class, which at the end of the weekend recorded a total of 101 thousand spectators against 160 thousand in 2019. the occasion of the Mugello appointment had aroused quite a few controversies.
Ticket price too high, protagonists who are not excessively driving … the Italian Grand Prix is in the balance for these reasons affirmed by the public. Misano was therefore a testing ground, but according to Marini the San Marino GP passed the exam. The Mooney VR46 driver also tries to explain that this is a transition year and that it is not true that there are no charismatic characters, they are simply all very young and they need time.
“A new era has begun, but this process takes time,” he explains. “Vale’s merit is having been able to attract the attention of fans and enthusiasts for many years, then the races were broadcast in the clear and it was different. Everyone had access to this world. The category level is rising. Maybe the race we saw at Misano may have been boring in terms of spectacle, but it’s impressive and let’s look at the pace we had. It wouldn’t have happened in the past. Few people on the circuit for too high prices? This should be pointed out to the organizers, I don’t know how much the tickets cost, but I don’t think that’s the problem. The show on the track is not lacking, we simply need time because we are all young drivers that we still have to make ourselves known well ”.
The comparison with the Superbike World Championship is inevitable, which in the last two seasons has been gaining a lot of interest for prominent personalities and for the hard-fought races, in which mistakes are also often made. Marini, however, does not want to think about the comparison with the production derivatives and explains: “We do not make mistakes for the simple reason that we are the best riders in the world (laughs), as are the bikes and tires. I repeat that MotoGP remains a beautiful show. Probably in the past they thought it was more engaging because there were the usual 3-4 drivers constantly fighting for the victory. Today, however, almost all of them can do it. This can lead to a division among the fans, but it’s amazing to see 6 or 7 riders fighting for the win at the same time ”.
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