Luca Marini: “We have to be smart”

Repsol Honda arrives at this weekend’s Indonesian MotoGP fresh from its best race of the season at Misano last Sunday.

For the first time this year, both Joan Mir and Luca Marini scored points, for 11th and 12th places respectively.

Mir thus equalled Honda’s best result of the season, while Marini claimed by far his highest finish on the RC213V.

The big question now is whether the new package of parts introduced between Misano 1 and Misano 2 will show the same promise at Mandalika.

“We have to be smart because everything we tried in Misano maybe doesn’t work here because it is a completely different situation,” Marini said.

“So on Friday we have to try to understand all the updates we have on the bike and how to mix them in the best way, or maybe just leave them as in Misano, to find the best compromise for these last races.

“Because here the grip especially will be completely different to Misano.”

Marini, who took pole position for VR46 Ducati at Mandalika last season, is optimistic. Not only is it a good track for the Italian but Honda finished a reasonable 11th (Takaaki Nakagami, Sprint) and 9th (Alex Rins, GP) last season.

“I think the bike has made a step in general so it will work well here also,” Marini predicted. “We have to understand if the performance can be the same level or lower or maybe higher. Because last year here Honda was quite fast.

“I made the pole position but also Taka and Marc were not far and also for race pace it was one of the best races for Honda. So I hope we can fight for a good position and stay in the points and, for qualifying, maybe go in Q2.”

Marini confirmed that the new aero package was the biggest improvement between Misano 1 and Misano 2.

“We had many changes and updates from the test. We have a new swingarm, new aero - which was the biggest change especially - and a few other things in the bike that help us to find better corner entry speed and turning,” he said.

“Still the traction is something difficult to solve, on the exit part of the corner. We are still working on it.”