Luca Marini returned to the podium with a third-place finish at the MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix. He was unable to contend for the win against Fabio di Giannantonio (Gresini/Ducati) and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), but he believes that his pace was sufficient and that he fell victim to race circumstances.
The Mooney VR46 Racing Team rider stated in a press conference that Bagnaia taking the lead early on thwarted his plans: ‘I’m really satisfied with the weekend, we’ve made a very solid work. The feeling with the bike was good. I knew that probably I wasn’t the fastest because Fabio showed us a very good pace from Friday. It’s just a pity because Pecco made an amazing start and my plan was to start well and be first at the end of the first lap and try to open a gap with them because I knew that with the soft front [tyre] I had something more maybe on the left corners in the first two laps. But then when I saw Pecco in front I said: «OK. Let’s manage a little bit the tyres»’.
Subsequently, Marini said that he ended up losing time behind other rivals, which cost him the chance of winning: ‘Fabio and Álex [Márquez] behind me were pushing a lot, they overtook me, and then I’ve lost a lot of time with Álex and Brad [Binder], so the opportunities of the victory were gone. But I was just trying to manage the tyres in the best way because with the soft front when you reach too much temperature it’s very difficult to ride. For my starting position the choice was to put the soft. I could also do the race with the hard, but the plan was another. But I’m very satisfied with my performance, my tyre management was good and I think had the pace to fight with them for the victory. But I’ve lost too much time during the race’.