Luca Marini: “Special feeling” for Misano MotoGP

Last season, Luca Marini arrived at his home Misano rounds with only a single point to his name - a promotion to 15th place in Germany after tyre-pressure penalty for Augusto Fernandez.

The Italian then missed the San Marino round due to sickness, but returned for the following Emilia Romagna event at the same track, where he claimed 12th place.

It would be his best finish of the season, later matched at Buriram, as he completed his first Honda season with just 14 points.

Marini returns with 82 points to his name - despite missing three rounds due to injury - and having pushed his Honda best to fourth place in the Balaton Sprint.

A repeat of 2024’s season-high at Misano would therefore mean a podium this weekend, a tall order but certainly not out of the question on a bike that is now regularly fighting for the top six.

“Racing in Misano is always a really special feeling and arriving there in good form makes it even better,” Marini said.

“Not just because it’s my home race, but I also like the circuit itself a lot and have been strong in the past there, so our objective is to continue like we have the past few weekends.

“We learned a lot in the race in Barcelona, and I am hoping to apply it this weekend to stay with those and the front and give the team and the home fans something to celebrate.”

While Marini used tenth in qualifying as a springboard for eighth in the Catalan MotoGP, team-mate Joan Mir had to claw his way back from 20th to 12th.

The former world champion underlined his potential by leading final practice, but badly needs to start higher on the grid.

“Our situation is the same as previous weekends: we clearly have potential that is growing, and we need to make sure to put everything together early in the weekend to capture the top ten on the grid,” he said.

“Misano should help us, it’s a track I like riding a lot and we had our best result there last year. Since then, we have improved the bike a lot, so it will be a good opportunity to again map our progress.”

Both riders remained in Barcelona for a private MotoGP test on Monday, where they put further laps on the latest Honda chassis.

“I think my weekend was penalised a little because we were testing a bit more than we should,” Mir reflected.

“Normally [after] half a season you have a good base on the bike. You just need ‘one click up, one click down’ [from track to track] and it’s not the case in this time. We changed geometry, a lot of things.”

The Spaniard added: “[The chassis] is not something you put on the track and straight away you feel better. You have to work and trust a bit on it.

“I think we are penalised a little bit on my strong point that is the braking. Then the natural turning looks like it's a bit better.”

Mir, whose best finish is sixth place this season, concluded: 

“I think that we are doing a solid second part of the season. Still some problems, some crashes, some things that we have to solve, but the performance itself is a lot better.”