Austin [US], April 15 : A difficult weekend in Texas came to a close for the Repsol Honda Team as Luca Marini battled for points and Joan Mir escaped injury in a mid-race crash.
Overhead clouds gave way to scorching sun as the MotoGP grid lined up for the 20-lap Grand Prix of the Americas on Sunday afternoon on the outskirts of Austin, Texas. Both Luca Marini and Joan Mir were eager to make the most of the second race and continue collecting information for HRC's engineers back in Japan. The pairing hustled for early positions in the melee of the opening lap with Marini gaining ground as the race began.
Luca Marini was once again the top Honda in the race as he kept his calm while those around him faltered. Steadily making progress and improving his lap time as the race went on, the #10 built his speed. As the race entered its final stages, the Italian focused on holding off a recovering Alex Marquez as the pair duked it out for 15th. Missing his first point as a Honda rider by under a second, Marini was again able to complete the full race distance to continue deepening his understanding of the Repsol Honda Team RC213V.
It would ultimately be another truncated race for Joan Mir, the #36 falling on lap nine as he worked to hunt down the group ahead of him. He was unharmed in the fall and content with the lap times he was setting immediately before the crash.
The Repsol Honda Team will now return home as they prepare for round four, the Gran Premio de Espana at the Circuito de Jerez - Angel Nieto.
"A tough end to a tough weekend. We didn't start the race itself super well so we were quite far behind but then I found my pace and I was able to get ahead of the other Honda riders. I started closing in on the group ahead but unfortunately, I lost the rear at Turn Six and crashed. Not much more to add. Everyone is working, we keep trying and pick ourselves up to do it all again at the next race," said Honda rider Joan Mir.
"I tried my best and fought for the last point hard. It was good to finish the race to get more data to the engineers. At this moment we are not in the correct place, and I think this is an important weekend for us. Now we can compare the data to this weekend and before and I hope that it can help us to keep improving. I think the direction is quite clear, we just need time," said Honda rider Luca Marini.
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