Luca Marini found himself in a disaster – and applauded his stand-in team-mate Nakagami

At his home event, just one week before the Austrian Grand Prix, official Honda HRC Castrol rider Luca Marini had put in a solid performance as the team’s best-placed rider in ninth place. Consequently, he headed to Styria with high expectations. There, Marini no longer faced his team-mate Joan Mir – but instead the former LCR regular and current test rider Taka Nakagami. The Japanese rider was to prove the benchmark over the course of the event.

After a promising start – Marini missed direct qualification for Q2 by just one thousandth of a second and, trailing the leader by 0.4 seconds, was still in contention for a top result – the event took a turn for the worse and became increasingly frustrating with every passing lap.

In qualifying, the Honda rider secured 15th place, whilst veteran Johann, in tenth, once again led the way among the Honda riders. In the races, Marini was then unable to make any impact. Less conspicuous in the Sprint – finishing ahead of Nakagami – the future KTM Tech3 rider faded into the background at the Austrian Grand Prix. 22 seconds behind the brilliant Pedro Acosta, Marini crossed the line directly behind stand-in Nakagami.

Luca Marini (Honda) erlebte zuletzt eine negative Überraschung

Foto: Gold and Goose

This was no disgrace for the Italian. Marini: “Taka rides non-stop, most recently on the 1000cc bike as well. He’s in brilliant physical and mental shape – and we know that he’s generally a very good rider and an excellent test rider. He has proved that he is also ready for GP events. His performance was strong. No crashes, no points – he did a very good job and prepared well for Motegi.”

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Tried everything for two World Championship points

Luca Marini, however, had nothing positive to say about his own performance. “It went well – when there was still little grip on the track. But as the grip increased, the others found speed and for me it turned into nothing short of a disaster. Honestly – we tried everything: we significantly modified the bike, changed its set-up, made it shorter and higher, and tried to generate more grip at the rear – without success.”

On top of the set-up issues, there were also some tricky manoeuvres in the GP race. Marini groaned after finishing 14th: “It was a terrible first lap with a lot of chaos, partly because I hadn’t got off to a good start. It only went well once I’d refocused fully on the riding itself and managed my rear tyre well.”

In terms of the World Championship standings, the sobering performance ahead of the race in Honda country had little impact. Luca Marini remains in 11th place as the highest-placed RC213V rider. However, the KTM Tech3 rider has recently closed the gap to just four points.