Like his teammate Marco Bezzecchi who qualified 4th, Luca marini had done an excellent job placing his Ducati GP22 on 6th place on the starting grid for the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
A promising double performance which, however, had a very contrasting outcome, Marco Bezzecchi crossing the finish line at the gates of the podium, while the race stopped after only one lap for the brother of Valentino Rossi, following what the Mooney VR46 Racing Team press release modestly refers to as a “technical problem”. We can imagine the frustration of the pilot whose hopes were reduced to nothing after two days of intensive efforts!
This is the first retirement of the season for Luca Marini who, now 13th, loses a place to Marc Márquez in the general classification of the championship. However, he remains 5 points ahead of his teammate.
In motorsport, breakdowns can still happen, even if they are rare today. The only thing a little intriguing are the details provided by the pilot, who speaks both of the Front Ride Height Device and of electronic failure, thus giving a glimpse of the sophistication of the system developed by Gigi Dall'Igna and controlled manually. But not only…
Luca marini : " It's a real shame because we had the potential to fight for the Top5. Immediately after departure I had a problem with the front lowering device. It was impossible to continue running. I arrived very slowly at the first corner, I tried not to disturb the other drivers, then I returned to the pits. That's part of the game: we have a lot of electronics on the bike and a problem of this nature can happen. I'm sorry. »
Paul Grandson : " Luca's technical problem is really a shame. He had a good start and could play a leading role in the top positions: He deserved much more. »
Malaysian MotoGP Grand Prix Results:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
