English
Italiano
Rally racers for a day! That’s what it seemed, since Withu wanted to give the Academy riders a day on rally cars. This happened near Verona and even Luca Marini, rider for the Esponsorama team, was also there.
Marini already knows what it means to drive a rally car, given his experience a few years ago at the Monza Rally Show.
“We’re here to have fun, even if the organizers want to put us to the test and do some damage,” the rider from Tavullia said jokingly. “Rallying is an incredible discipline that I admire a lot and, as a result, I’m thrilled for this fantastic opportunity.”
Today the rally, and the MotoGP in a week’s time.
“We’ll be back in a week, and I’m happy to be back on the track. I had the opportunity to rest during the summer but also to train. Two important races await us in Austria, where I want to be competitive, trying to do my best. We recently got some practice with the V4, and I want to be ready starting from the FP1 on Friday.”
Summer is a time to relax and go on vacation, but also for taking stock. Luca analyzes this first half of the Championship.
"I’m generally satisfied with how the season started. We started gradually, taking it one step at a time, also because the category was new, as was the team. But I think I’m at a good level, although there are some things to polish up. Personally, I don’t expect anything exceptional from August on. I just want to get as many points as possible with what we have.”
We talked with Luca Marini about motorcycles, rallies, but also about the future.
“I don’t know anything, also because we haven’t yet talked about it, since we were on vacation. We’ll have to take stock this weekend, even if I’m not worried about being left out. It’s important for me to have a factory bike next year, since the level is high, and all the riders have one now. If you have less experience and not even an official bike, it’s even more difficult to battle it out in this MotoGP.”
Who knows if Luca will be able to share the garage next year with his brother, Vale.
“It’s everyone’s wish! A MotoGP without Vale will never be the same again. We all told him to continue. I see he’s excited. He’d like to race to get results, since he's still awesome. An example was Saturday at the Ranch, where he made things difficult for us. Valentino is always an inspiration.”
Rossi thinks Luca really knows what he wants and what to expect from the second half of the season.
“I’d like to score more points than in the first part of the championship, since it would mean having progressed.”
