Luca Marini misses out on much-needed point due to post-race tyre pressure penalty
Luca Marini is 23rd in MotoGP standings but believes Honda have 'improved'
Luca Marini missed out on scoring a point at the British MotoGP due to a post-race tyre pressure penalty.
The Repsol Honda rider crossed the line in 15th, enough to claim only his second point of the season.
But he was demoted to 17th - and pointless - for failing to meet the minimum tyre pressure regulations.
Teammate Joan Mir did not finish at Silverstone, while LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco finished 14th and Takaaki Nakagami was 15th.
Marini, before his penalty, told media including Crash.net about the issues faced by his Honda: “The problem is the first laps.
“In the first lap we had a gap, more or less half-a-second per lap from a good group.
“In the first lap, we take seconds. We need to understand how we make the rear tyre work at the beginning of the race.
“At the beginning, I was alone with nobody in front.
“It was strange because, in this race, I struggled a lot with vibrations. “In this long race, it was much worse than yesterday.
“I needed to slow down because I almost crashed at every corner. A lot of vibrations - we need to investigate this problem.
“This can sometimes happen with our bike, it happened to other Honda riders.
“We have to understand how to avoid it.”
However, Marini believes Honda are finding solutions to their long-lasting problems.
“Now, in qualifying, we are able to make a good lap with a soft tyre,” he said. “With a hard compound, we struggle.
“I would’ve liked to race with a hard front and a soft rear. But seeing everyone… medium, medium… I wanted to follow everyone so can follow the data. For the manufacturer it is better to have feedback.”
The spec of the engine used by Marini differs to other Honda riders.
“Mir, we have the same. Zarco, we have different ones,” he explained.
“Zarco’s engine is more powerful, more horsepower, more speed on the straight. But it’s difficult to ride and I don’t like it.
“For me, for the development of the bike in the future, it is not the right way.
“With my engine now, we always lose two tenths in the straights, but it’s the way for the future. It’s how we’ll find more performance.”
Marini has only one point in the entire season, after 10 rounds. He is rooted to the bottom of the standings, in 23rd, behind even Dani Pedrosa who took part in just one round as a wildcard.
But, Marini has found positives.
“We have improved so much. Maybe the results are the same,” he said.
“But it’s a big step riding the bike. The feeling improved.
“The problem is that everyone has made a step. Everyone is pushing a lot.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
