For the third time this season, after Le Mans and Assen, Yamaha beat Honda at the German Grand Prix. In total, the two teams of the Kamerton brand scored 17 points against 13 for the rival clan.
However, on Saturday Luca Marini still believed Honda to be superior to the other Japanese marque in MotoGP, despite Fabio Quartararo’s excellent performance in qualifying, which was already Yamaha’s trump card in France and the Netherlands.
In addition to the Frenchman, who won a place in the second row of the grid, the Yamaha clan could count on Jack Miller at the Sachsenring, who also took part in the second quarter, which was a rare fact. Luca Marini was the best representative on the grid, but if he moved to the fourth row, it was only after the departure of Marco Bezzecchi. : Typically, no Honda made it past the first quarter, something that had never happened before this year.
At the same time, Yamaha once again won the duel in the sprint thanks to Fabio Quartararo, who took a point in ninth place, ahead of Diogo Moreira and Luca Marini.
“I think if we could have started in the same position as Fabio, we could have been better than Yamaha and finished ahead of them.” nevertheless, he appreciated Marini after this sprint. “The problem is that Fabio did an incredible lap in qualifying and that makes a difference on a short track, especially in the sprint race, but in general on a track where it is difficult to overtake. I think we are still ahead of Yamaha, we are stronger, but qualifying is not our strong point at the moment.
Luca Marini is the only driver of the Japanese brand to be in the top 10 of the championship.
Photo: Gold and Goose Photography/Getty Images
However, on Sunday the Italian driver reconsidered his decision. Like many, he had to deal with very delicate tire management, except that he had the feeling that his bike was suffering more than others.
“At the end of the day, in the Sunday race we always have the worst conditions of the weekend because we go after the Moto2 race, it’s hot and we have a medium tire at the back, so we always have a little less grip. But I think it’s the same for everyone, so you just have to deal with it.”
“On this track in particular, it was not only the rear that suffered, but also the front. So there was a lot of understeer and movement from the front, so it wasn’t easy to turn into corners. We tried to improve the front end, but at the moment we can’t do more.” – Luca Marini regretted.
“They’re spinning, they’re spinning!”
At the end of 30 laps of the race, the Yamaha was still ahead of the Honda, with Quartararo in seventh and Marini in eighth. The latter trailed Miller and the 2021 world champion for much of the race before the Australian suddenly changed pace with five laps to go. And Marini insists that he did not feel blocked by the Yamahas, which were slower than his Honda. He even believes that it was the brand of tuning forks that ultimately prevailed in this scheme.
“To be honest, Jack was very fast, very strong. However, then I don’t know what happened to him. He seemed to have a problem because he was very slow from one lap to the next. It was completely different, so I don’t know what happened.” he was surprised at first, not knowing that Miller had to reduce the power of his M1.
“Beyond that, to be honest, they turn a lot. They turn a lot, they turn, they turn. ! And it’s not easy for us now. We have a little more problems” Marini explained.
“The corners are very important on this track, so in the end the Yamahas were a little more efficient than us throughout the weekend and we lost the Japan Cup. This is a point for them. ! But we will try our luck again at Silverstone.”
In the championship, Luca Marini, however, remains the best of the pilots who participated in the races on one of the Japanese motorcycles. Due to the absence of Fermin Aldeguer at this Grand Prix, he entered the top ten in the general classification. He owes much of this to his consistency as he is the only one to score points in every Sunday race this season. He is 24 points ahead of Yamaha’s top performer, Fabio Quartararo, in 14th place.
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