Luca Marini battled with Johann Zarco for much of the sprint race and took some positives from it, even though he had to lose.
Luca marini seems to have definitely found something with his Honda. Having been far down the standings since joining the manufacturer last year, he was at the forefront of the Hungarian GP two weeks ago and confirmed his pace this weekend in Catalonia. Qualifying automatically for Q15 yesterday, he grabbed tenth place on the grid and was once again able to fight in the top 2 in the sprint race.
After a good start that saw him gain two positions, he finally dropped back to ninth place at the start of the second lap and remained there until the finish line. However, he gained a position thanks to the fall of Álex Márquez in the lead. On paper, Marini was therefore unable to really improve on his qualifying performance, but he achieved another solid result, in addition to having a great battle with Johann Zarco.
He tried to attack him several times, without ever managing to get ahead of him. If the Frenchman was somewhat frustrated by this fight, the Italian driver was delighted and hopes to continue his momentum tomorrow.
“The riders in the second group, which we’re part of, have a very similar pace to us. Starting further ahead on the grid is a major advantage, so I’m really happy with how we’ve worked to get to this point. It’s a satisfying result, which shows the development we’ve made on the bike compared to last year, and that’s ultimately the goal of this project. There’s still work to be done, of course, but we need to understand how we’re progressing.” did he declare.
"I tried something on Zarco at the very end, but I was really on the limit and he passed me. But the race was enjoyable with this fight. We've had a solid weekend so far. Tomorrow we can improve the bike a little in the morning and then we'll see during the race. Of course, tire management will be key, but also the start and two solid first laps to maintain your position and then set a good pace. The race will be interesting."
Results of the sprint race of the Catalan Grand Prix :
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
