Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello
Marini and Mir hunt further Italian GP gains
13th for a determined Luca Marini in front of his home crowd in Italy as Joan Mir battled vibrations in the Sprint, forced to retire early.
An evening of hard work offered improvements for both Honda HRC Castrol riders as the new day dawned in the Tuscan hills. Cool conditions were quickly replaced by the typical sunshine expected of the region.
Overnight adjustments by Honda HRC’s engineers gave Luca Marini an improved feeling as Saturday in Mugello began. The #10 was closer to the front, but more was needed as Marini captured 16th on the grid and left himself with another comeback to perform. Launching off the line with his usual precision, the Italian made up a handful of positions through the opening sector of the 11-lap Sprint race and lapped consistently. 13th at the end of the race, Marini gained valuable data to improve the setup and handling of his Honda RC213V for Sunday’s main event. Marini will start Sunday’s race from 19th after receiving a three-place grid penalty during Q1.
Qualifying in 15th with a best time of 1’45.274, Joan Mir had cut another three tenths off his best time from Friday. With a number of big names ahead of him, the #36 was determined to make a comeback when the lights went out but Mir’s race was compromised almost immediately as intense vibrations restricted his performance. The vibrations worsened as the race went on, Mir electing to return to the garage with his Honda RC213V and retire from the race.
Sunday’s 23-lap race will be an intense affair as the ambient conditions are expected to once again climb as the lights go out at 14:00 Local Time.
Luca Marini 10 Honda HRC Castrol
“My feeling with everything improved this morning, but still not enough to make big improvements. Like always I couldn’t take the maximum profit in Qualifying because there was a lot of movement, so we started down the grid again. I’ve been practicing my race starts a lot and again we made a good start to the race and these races coming through the field are enjoyable in the moment because of the battles, but we are not targeting these positions. Tomorrow we will need an even better start to recover these three extra positions!”
Joan Mir 36 Honda HRC Castrol
“I had really intense vibrations coming from somewhere, we are checking to understand the cause. Even without them it has obviously been a really tough weekend for us so far after what we did in Barcelona. I wanted to try and finish the Sprint for the team; to get information to improve on Sunday but we couldn’t manage it. Tomorrow will also be tough, but we keep trying.”
