The pole man, Luca Marini, finished yesterday’s Sprint race in second place, ending today’s long race prematurely, not by his own fault, but because he was hit by Brad Binder.
In the debrief, the Italian rider from Mooney VR46 explained that he could do nothing to avoid the collision, showing satisfaction with the weekend and not holding any grudge against Brad Binder:
– No, it was impossible (to avoid), I just saw a flash and bam, that was it. But Brad came to my garage and explained everything, so now I am less upset because he said that when he passed me, he had a moment with the bike and sometimes it happens that the front brake pads open. That also happened to me this weekend and I know that feeling. It was just bad luck in my case. It’s something I can’t control, but I’m more disappointed with my start because my start wasn’t that good, but then when Jorge passed me on the straight, I had to close the throttle because I was almost falling due to my front tire and I lost two positions there that, in this case, put me in the wrong position for my race. Anyway, it was a good weekend for me, the speed was good and let’s see how my physical condition is in Phillip Island, if it’s a bit better. I hope so.
Marini was also asked about the weekend as a whole and if he expected to achieve the results he achieved in Mandalika, showing some surprise at how things turned out, with the certainty that he could have fought for the podium without today’s bad luck:
– The race was quite strange (Sprint), as well as the podium. No one expected the podium to be like this. We knew Maverick could be strong and Jorge the strongest today, but seeing the lap times and the pace that everyone had, I could have easily fought for the podium because today it was also cold, with the wind. And especially with the medium rear tire, the bike is easier to ride in terms of physical effort, because with less grip the bike shakes much less, so the effort you have to apply on the handlebars is much lower…
