Luca Marini matched his best finish of the season in the MotoGP Thai GP, crossing the line in 12th place. While it’s far from the heights once associated with Repsol Honda, it was ultimately a satisfying performance.
The Italian rider noted that, despite feeling competitive in the race, he faced a significant challenge: ‘I enjoyed so much in the warm-up, but also in the race I was quite comfortable – risking to crash every time, because the conditions were super difficult, super slippery. But I was quite fast; the problem was that it was difficult for me to overtake’.
Commenting on these overtaking difficulties and the battles he encountered, Marini explained: ‘It’s very difficult, because exiting from the corners the traction is not fantastic, and we can’t accelerate so well. So, when you follow a KTM or a Ducati everything becomes super difficult. For this, I lost a little bit of time. Then, we had great battles also with [Johann] Zarco, with [Joan] Mir, I enjoyed it’.
The result felt satisfying after a challenging weekend in Buriram, as the #10 stated: ‘I risked crashing many times in different corners, but in the end everything went well. So, I’m just satisfied with how we saved the weekend with a good Sunday race in difficult conditions, because Saturday was a bad day’.