Why all Honda riders went against the grain at Assen MotoGP

Luca Marini says Honda riders “didn’t have a lot of choice” at the Assen MotoGP, leading them to make an alternative tyre choice.

Almost the entire grid chose medium-compound rear tyre, but the four Honda riders – as well as the Marquez brothers – chose the soft rear tyre for the 26-lap race.

While Marc and Alex Marquez both finished in the top-six, the best Honda was Luca Marini, who was only 11th at the chequered flag, behind both factory Yamahas.

Marini explained afterwards that he was caught up in an incident at turn five and from there he found it hard to overtake, which led him to over-stress the rear tyre.

“I felt that I had a little bit more pace than the guys in front of me but I was stuck there,” said Marini after the Assen race.

“Then also at the beginning of the race, the start in turn five, I don't understand what happened. We touched, everybody touched, like four or five bikes, we touched each other.

“I don't know if I lost some pieces, some small wing or something. 

“I didn't understand what happened, but starting from there, I was losing a lot of time at the beginning of the race behind Jack [Miller].

“When I overtook him, I was a little bit confident on my pace to recover to Fabio [Quartararo]. But when I caught Rins, it was difficult to overtake. 

“I pushed a little bit too much on the rear tyre and I had the soft, so I said ‘Okay, now I manage a little bit to survive until the end’. 

“But at the end, I didn't have enough rear tyre to try to overtake. 

“I was struggling especially in turning behind Alex [Rins]. I don't know why, but I was not turning enough so every time a little bit on delay on the pick-up and I was losing a lot in acceleration.”

If a few laps of pushing to try to pass Alex Rins caused Marini to have to conserve the tyre in order to “survive until the end”, as he put it, perhaps the soft-compound rear tyre was the wrong choice of rear tyre.

But Marini explained that it was the only option for the Honda riders, as with the medium-compound rear tyre the RC213V could not generate enough grip.

“Well, for us, at the end we didn't have a lot of choice, sincerely, because with the medium [compound rear tyre], the grip for us is zero and we cannot defend ourselves with the medium, the bike is sliding everywhere too much,” the Honda HRC rider said.

“So it was a little bit the only option for us. 

“We knew that the last eight laps would drop, so it was. I was trying to do something every corner to try to overtake Alex but at the end it was impossible. 

“But for us, it was not an option, the [soft] rear.”