There might have been three Hondas gaining direct entry into Q2 at the end of this MotoGP Friday in Portimao. Instead, Luca Marini paid dearly for the crash in turn 13 in which he stumbled in the first minutes of Pre-Qualifying, remaining excluded by about a tenth from the ten riders who qualified by right for the second phase of Qualifying.
"The crash definitely complicated my day," admitted the rider from the Marche, "It wasn't what we wanted, but it was a moment when we all had to push hard to be in the top 10 already on the first exit, because with such uncertain weather you never know. We lost some time and then we obviously didn't have the tyres, which have to be kept for the end when the track improves. We lost our way a bit and in the end I'm out by a tenth. It was a shame. We could have done better, as the feeling was pretty good this morning and we made a small step forward in the afternoon. We'll try again tomorrow morning."
Seventh in the morning free practice session, Marini can only be disappointed to have missed out on a Top 10 that could have been well within his reach.
"We already compromised the last race by not going straight into Q2 and I didn't want it to happen again here, since in the previous Rounds, where we were already in Q2, we took home some good results in the races - he explained - We'll start again in a little bit more difficulty, but in tomorrow morning's Q1 we'll try to do better than in Malaysia."
The battle to enter Q2 will be a good one, but the HRC man isn't backing down: "There will be Franco who will definitely be a tough nut to crack in Q2. Then, Binder and also Fabio. Q1 is never easy. As it always is by now."
Among the positives of this first day of action in Portugal, however, seems to be the new tail brought by Honda.
"Did I demolish it? No, it's all right. I crashed easily!" reassured Luca, before telling us how how he felt with the new solution: "It's better in some phases, but we're trying to work on that 'floating' feeling they've been complaining about at Honda for so many years. In my opinion, with this update we're going in the right direction to improve it: when you have to put the bike into certain corners, it's like you have a little more feeling on the rear tyre, which in my opinion is what Honda has always lacked a little bit. Will I continue to use it? We still have to figure it out and do more laps with both bikes. We will still keep them like this: one different from the other, to do some testing and get a little more information. I wanted to try it here rather than in Valencia, because this is a track where you can test things better."
Marini concluded his analysis by reserving a comment for Nicolò Bulega's debut on the Ducati GP25 of the injured Marc Marquez: "He did what I expected. In the end, he did very well."
Photocredit: Pier Luca Brunetti