“Pain in the chest” for Luca Marini after Austrian MotoGP bodywork strike

Luca Marini’s Austrian MotoGP went poorly from the start as he was hit by a piece of bodywork from another rider’s bike.

Marini ended up as the third-best Honda in Austria, finishing behind Johann Zarco and Takaaki Nakagami, who was riding in place of the sick Joan Mir.

The Honda HRC rider crossed the line 14th after a chaotic start and only limited progress from that point as he waited for others to lose grip.

“I just did a bad first lap,” Luca Marini said after the race.

“I had some contacts with the guys behind. A little bit of chaos and I was really in the back, really last. 

“Then I tried to stay calm and say ‘Okay, now I just manage the rear tyre, I manage the fuel, and let's see if somebody in front of me will drop with the rear’. 

“But unfortunately, only Diogo [Moreira] and Quartararo finished the rear tyre. The rest of the guys looked pretty in a good shape until the end of the race.”

The race also saw Marini get hit by a piece of bodywork, thought by Marini to be a wing from Fabio Quartararo’s Yamaha, which left him with “a lot of pain” for a brief period.

“I think it was Quartararo's wing,” Marini said. “I saw a blue piece that hit me in the braking of turn four. 

“I don't know if he had a contact with somebody in the straight between three and four. 

“I saw the wing. I tried to avoid it, but it [hit me in the chest]. 

“I had a lot of pain for those two corners. Then I tried to forget about this and focus again on my riding.”

He added: “Just a little bit worried at the beginning. Now I have a little bit of pain here in the chest. 

“Fortunately, everything went well, but it could be much worse.”

Backwards from a good start

Marini had started the weekend well, finishing in the top-10 in FP1 and almost making it into Q2 in Practice.

But as the weekend progressed he became decreasingly competitive.

“It started well because the grip was low for everybody,” he explained after the race.

“Then for the other guys, it looks like it [grip] improved; for me, it's still a disaster. 

“We tried everything on the bike. 

“Sincerely, we modified a lot the bike. We go shorter, higher, loading more the rear, trying to find more the grip. Everything that we can do, we did. No effect.”

The harder-construction rear tyre that Michelin takes to the Red Bull Ring had proved problematic for Ducati at the Austrian Grand Prix. 

Marini said afterwards that he also struggled with it, even compared to other Honda riders who were able to maintain much lower temperatures.

“I struggle a lot with this tyre,” he said. “For me, I had a lot of problems with the temperature with the rear. 

“I had a lot of spin and I cannot manage more than this because I'm not opening the throttle and putting the bike full straight. I'm not using the [ride height] device. 

“I just try to keep the temperature as low as possible, but even like this, I have 20 degrees more than the other Honda riders. I really don't understand. 

“Of course, maybe it's because I'm tall and I weigh more than the others, but it was a really tough Saturday and Sunday. I didn't expect so much.”