The least we can say is that Luca marini is still extremely fast this off-season, with the Mooney VR46 Racing Team rider finishing 2nd in the first day of MotoGP testing in Portimão, Portugal, after setting the fastest time in testing in Valencia and Sepang!
The Mooney VR46 Racing Team is back on track in Portugal for the last meeting before the first race of the 2023 season. In Portimão, Luca Marini did not hide his game and was immediately in the flow of the fastest, on his completely finished Ducati Desmosedici GP22 (the former bike of Francis Bagnaia).
Happy with the work done in Malaysia last February and working to test the soft tire for the Sprint race, Luca marini did not struggle to catch up with the pace of the leading group and set an excellent 1'39.005 (on the 58th of his 65 laps completed on Saturday), a time which allowed the brother to Valentino Rossi to temporarily occupy the head of the ranking in the last hour then to remain two tenths behind the leader Francis Bagnaia (1'38.771) at the end of the session.
Luca marini : " I'm happy with my first approach to this circuit because I had a lot of trouble last year. At first I had some problems because the sensations were completely different compared to Malaysia. Of course, the track also has a completely different character, much smoother and there is no need to brake hard. It's only the first day, but the work done can already be significant for the GP.
The bike is really very complete now. For me, the machine is easy to ride and it is really complete. You can brake late and have a lot of passing speed through the corners, not as much as Yamaha or Suzuki, but we are very close. The grip level isn't amazing, but it's good enough to be strong.
In the morning we focused on adapting the bike to this circuit, which is very different from Valencia and Sepang, and in the afternoon I felt good with the adjustments I tried in terms of electronics and suspension settings. I rode with the soft tires and I must say that I suffered from the degradation of the rubber on the left side of the tire. It won't be a problem for the Sprint, but for the 25 lap race it will have to be evaluated. On Sunday we want to simulate the Sprint race so that we can make a good decision when choosing tires. The soft rear tire is not too soft, because you can still achieve your fastest lap after three, four or five laps. Under these conditions, this mixture should therefore be usable for the Sprint race. We will make comparisons, but we probably won't be able to run with them in the main race. »
Ranking of the MotoGP Test in Portimão J1:
Classification credit: motogp.com
