Austin [US], April 14 : Luca Marini worked to take advantage of an arduous Sprint race as his Repsol Honda Team teammate was once again the victim of early contact. Both riders are aiming for more on Sunday.
Free Practice 2 gave both Luca Marini and Joan Mir time to assess more changes to their respective Honda RC213V machines after overnight work. Progress continued for them both as Qualifying approached. Difficulties continued for the Repsol Honda Team pairing during Q1, both able to improve on their best lap times but unfortunately unable to make major improvements to their positions.
Marini would end the Sprint in 17th place as he encountered never-before-seen chatter, which severely limited his potential. Despite this, the #10 diligently completed the race in order to gather as much information as possible and improve on Sunday and in the future. Marini and his team already have ideas on how to improve their package for Sunday's Grand Prix.
For Joan Mir the Sprint race was compromised early as heavy contact from another rider left his RC213V with serious damage. Although able to stay upright during the contact, Mir would crash several laps later due to the damage and the subsequent effects on the handling. He was unharmed in the fall.
Both riders will get a chance to test further improvements on Sunday in the 20-lap Grand Prix of the Americas, scheduled to start at 14:00 Local Time.
"I made quite a good start but then I suffered a big contact with another rider and all of the wings and fairing on the left side of the bike was damaged. It was very hard to control in the change of direction and in braking and finally I fell. I am OK and we will be able to go again tomorrow. It's clear there is still a lot to do, so we need to keep our head down and do the work in front of us," said Honda rider Joan Mir.
"It was a complicated race for us. I have never had this feeling with the chattering on the bike but I think the team and I can fix it for tomorrow. In the position we are in, the best thing we can do is keep trying different settings and making the most of the track time. Now we will work again with the team to understand what we can do on Sunday and also how we can work on the development in the coming weeks," said Honda rider Luca Marini.
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