MotoGP Portimão-2 J2: A brilliant but annoying Saturday for Luca Marini (Ducati/12)!

Luca Marini is undoubtedly at ease at the Algarve International Autodrome in Portimão!

Already, in April during the Portuguese Grand Prix, the young Italian qualified in eighth position, his best result in MotoGP at the time, since beaten by his third place during the last Emilia-Romagna GP. He finished the race in 12th position, his best result at the time, since surpassed by his fifth place in Austria.

This weekend, for the second visit of the MotoGP to Portimão, the rookie of the Sky VR46 Avintia team once again stood out, first by joining the top 10 of the privileged ones going directly to Q2, then by simply achieving the third time of FP4!

Unfortunately, the number 10 was also the victim of a fall at the start of qualifying, consequently being unable to do better than 12th place in this exercise.

After going directly to Q2 at the end of FP3, the driver of the Sky VR46 Avintia suffered a fall at the start of the session, before even completing a fast lap. Despite a second run of four laps, it is from the fourth row that Luca Marini will start this Sunday, with the ambition of making people forget this small error.

Luca marini : " It's a real shame for qualifying because we had very good potential today. In the first run I didn't have a good feeling with the front tire and I made a mistake. I immediately returned to the garage, but on the second bike I had the S on the front because I no longer had an M available. Unfortunately, with this type of tire, it is really difficult to find performance on this track. Overall, so far anyway, a good weekend. Let's look at the data to choose the best compound for tomorrow's race. »

Reuben Xaus : " A weekend with ups and downs so far, but overall a good weekend. Luca did well in free practice and was incredible in FP4. Too bad he crashed at the start of Q2, but he can recover and have a good race tomorrow. »