Luca Marini was stuck behind Johann Zarco for too long in the Malaysian GP and was unable to make a comeback.
Luca marini didn't have the best Grand Prix of his season. In a very positive dynamic since mid-July, he has been racking up a string of solid results and has quickly caught up with Johann Zarco in the championship, the Frenchman being Honda's best representative so far.
But in Malaysia, things didn't go as the number 10 would have liked. On Friday, he was the first driver to be ousted from the direct passage to Q2 by just 62 thousandths before the scenario repeated itself in Q1 on Saturday. Qualifying 13th, he then fell for the first time this season during the sprint race.
On Sunday, he made a great start, taking seventh place in the first two corners, but made a mistake in the fourth. He found himself in ninth place, behind his teammate Joan Mir and Zarco, and was unable to move up. He even dropped to 11th place towards the end of the race, but managed to regain a place while benefiting from Fermín Aldeguer's crash and Francesco Bagnaia's retirement in the final laps.
Finally finishing eighth, he once again scored important points and got a little closer to Zarco, what is its objectiveHowever, he could not be satisfied since Joan Mir himself reached the podium.
"I had a good start but I made a mistake at Turn 4 and Mir and Zarco passed me. From there, Zarco logically spent the race closing the doors on me so I wouldn't overtake him and he let the riders in front get away to cool the tires and engine a bit. For the first four or five laps, I tried to pass him but obviously he was stopping me and I got stuck. And then when the temperature rises, nothing works anymore.", said Marini.
"I think I made the wrong tire choice. The track temperature was so high that the bike stopped turning. Compared to this morning, I was clearly struggling with the front, but I couldn't use the rear to turn because I had to save it. I was slow, I wasn't comfortable riding, I was losing the front."
"I'm very happy for Joan, he had a great race. He had a great pace, but actually I had it too, it's just that he managed to get away from the traffic in the first laps. Of course, I would have preferred to be on the podium [laughs] but we'll try again in the next two Grands Prix," he concluded.
Malaysian Grand Prix Results :
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
