Marini makes progress in Germany
SachsenringA blustery day at the Sachsenring opened the weekend, Luca Marini putting his best foot forward to lead the Repsol Honda Team while Joan Mir looks to come back from an untimely fall.
In almost the blink of an eye the MotoGP World Championship was transported from Assen to the Sachsenring, and it was immediatley time to get out on track again. Conditions were cool as Free Practice 1 began in the morning, Luca Marini getting to work straight away to right the wrongs of the previous round. Ending the morning in 19th, the Italian would find over a second between sessions to conclude the day with a best lap of 1’20.868. 17th overall and just 0.2s from Zarco, the leading Honda, Marini is content with Friday’s progress but knows there is still much more to do.
On the other side of the Repsol Honda Team garage, Joan Mir endured a more trying day. Starting the day in 21st, he and his team made solid progress to improve his feeling with the Honda RC213V for the afternoon session but a fall at Turn 1 would scupper his chances of improvements. He finished in 22nd.
The work will continue overnight for both Repsol Honda Team riders to achieve their maximum. Forecasts remain mixed as to what conditions Saturday will present.
We’ve been able to make a good step today compared to where we started, but there’s still more work to do. There was a lot of wind today which made everything quite tricky, you have to stay really focused every lap. Corner entry is an area that we can still make some improvements in, so this will be one of the focuses for tomorrow.
We’ve been able to make a good step today compared to where we started, but there’s still more work to do. There was a lot of wind today which made everything quite tricky, you have to stay really focused every lap. Corner entry is an area that we can still make some improvements in, so this will be one of the focuses for tomorrow.
Honestly today was a really tough day for us, we went the wrong way with the setting – it was a risk that unfortunately didn’t pay off. In the afternoon we found a better setup, but I had a crash when I started to really push, and this upset the final part of practice. The objective for tomorrow is to be more competitive, to at least be with the other Honda riders and restart what we were doing at the start of the year in races.
Honestly today was a really tough day for us, we went the wrong way with the setting – it was a risk that unfortunately didn’t pay off. In the afternoon we found a better setup, but I had a crash when I started to really push, and this upset the final part of practice. The objective for tomorrow is to be more competitive, to at least be with the other Honda riders and restart what we were doing at the start of the year in races.
Riding at the Sachsenring is always such a pleasure for me, I immediately feel the support from the fans and as the only German in MotoGP I really want to put on a good weekend for them. We have some items to work on like always. Let’s see what we can manage, there’s work to do but we can see the potential of the bike from the other riders.
Riding at the Sachsenring is always such a pleasure for me, I immediately feel the support from the fans and as the only German in MotoGP I really want to put on a good weekend for them. We have some items to work on like always. Let’s see what we can manage, there’s work to do but we can see the potential of the bike from the other riders.
