Both Luca Marini and Joan Mir recovered slightly from hard Saturday mornings to gain positions and show more competitive pace in the Sprint on their way to 15th and 16th.
Humid conditions continued relentlessly throughout Saturday as the laps of the Sepang International Circuit added up. Working to keep pace with the continual improvements of the field, Luca Marini and Joan Mir worked closely with their teams to stay on the pace. Threats of rain would amount to nothing, and the entire day was run in the dry – despite a last minute scare on the grid.
Lining up in 19th, one place ahead of his teammate, Luca Marini aimed to emulate the speed shown by Johann Zarco on the LCR Honda RC213V in the Sprint. Able to stay with the Frenchman for most of the race, Marini would cross the line in 15th place as he held off a late charge from the other Repsol Honda Team machine. A return to a similar setup as in previous races helped the Italian to recover some feeling and ultimately take top Honda honours for the day. The #10 will focus on several areas of improvement with his team before the 20-lap Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Joan Mir would give himself an uphill battle for the Sprint after finishing Q1 in 10th, but as always the #36 attacked the situation head on. Launching well from 20th, Mir picked his way through the opening corners before a close call with another rider’s debris at Turn 4 forced him to stand up and lose ground. The 2020 World Champion rallied and steadily climbed his way up the field, working hard to catch his teammate until the very last lap. Just a second behind his fellow Repsol Honda Team rider, Mir took 16th at the flag and was content with the improvement in feeling and race pace he and his team found. Sunday offers another chance for more improvements.
The penultimate Sunday of the season now looms large, 20-laps around the 5.54 kilometers of the Sepang International Circuit waiting at 15:00 Local Time. It’s set to be one of the most critical races of the year with the 2024 MotoGP World Championship potentially on the line.
Luca Marini
15th
“We had a decent race, I got a good start and was able to fight in the early laps. Our pace was still not there with the other riders and I was risking too much to stay in the 1’59s, so I wasn’t able to stay with the group ahead of me. Overall I feel that we have made a step compared to yesterday, which is a positive and I want to say thank you to my team for doing a lot during the night. There are still some improvements for us to make, especially under straight braking so I hope we can make some steps with that. Let’s see what will happen tomorrow, there’s still more to come.”
Joan Mir
16th
“There were some steps forward today, I know that we struggled and lost a lot in Qualifying but in the Sprint we were able to get something back. We changed a few things on the bike to ride in a more natural way, which also helped us. I made a good launch but then got stuck in some traffic, then in Turn 4 someone’s wing flew at me so I had to stand up. The opening laps were quite tricky but then we settled into our pace and we were quite competitive from the middle of the race.”
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