RiderTua.com – Luca Marini finished his first MotoGP race with Honda in the back position (P-20), because if Miller had not crashed he would definitely have been in front of him. The VR46 Academy rider experienced major difficulties at Losail.
A difficult start to the season for Luca Marini riding the factory team’s Honda RC213V. The new adventure in MotoGP is expected to be difficult for the former Ducati rider and the first race in Qatar confirmed that the road to top spot will be long and winding. From his penultimate starting position, the Honda newcomer finished 21st in the Sprint and things were no better in Sunday’s race.
Luca Marini Finishes Last: I Need Time and Calm
20th position in the race in Qatar, where the only rider behind him was Jack Miller, who had just joined after falling in the early stages. The gap to his friend and winner Pecco Bagnaia was a terrible 42 seconds. Despite his poor debut, Valentino Rossi’s brother remained calm and used a good philosophy. “I saw on my pit board there was someone behind me. Then I thought, why? Until I realized it had to be Jack… So I let him pass and tried to follow him,” said Luca Marini jokingly.
Must be calm and patient
The secret to facing this MotoGP season in the best way is to not lose your temper. It’s not easy to move from a Ducati that is capable of fighting for the top position to a Honda that is fighting at the back of the pack. A choice he is very aware of, which he accepted in order to be in the factory team. The first round in Qatar served to learn to understand everything. “Now it’s clear what we need to work on. Jack is not necessarily stronger than me when braking. But the KTM has a lot of grip on the rear wheel, especially when entering corners. He can steer the bike with great precision until it reaches the apex of the corner and then accelerates smoothly . That’s where I’m having the most difficulty right now,” said Marini analyzing his performance on the RC213V compared to the KTM RC16.
The end result is of course not a clear indication of the current state of development of the RC213V. Zarco (LCR Honda) and Mir (Repsol Honda) finished the Qatar GP in 12th and 13th positions with a time difference of 18 seconds. The changes made to the warm-up session did not improve the technical situation, everything had to be postponed until the next MotoGP series in Portugal by studying the data collected over the weekend. “I had a small problem during the race, that’s why my pace was very slow. Even without the problem I wouldn’t have been able to fight for positions as well as my brand colleagues… We have to recover, but this is a process that requires time and calm… I had a problem “, but I won’t say what it is. Overall, I think we can take some positive things from this matter,” concluded the VR46 Academy student.
