Joan Mir and Luca Marini Shine at Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

The Repsol Honda Team is heading to Indonesia with high spirits after Joan Mir and Luca Marini delivered impressive performances at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Misano, Italy. Joan Mir finished 11th, and Luca Marini secured 12th place, marking their best race results of the year.

Strong Performances at Misano

Both riders benefited from new upgrades to the Honda RC213V, which helped them achieve their best grid positions and a double point-scoring finish. Joan Mir faced an early setback when another rider forced him wide, but he made a strong comeback to finish 11th. His lap times in the second half of the race were particularly impressive, matching those in the top ten.

Luca Marini also delighted home fans by finishing 12th, an improvement from his previous best finish of 15th in Germany. Despite early challenges with his rear tire, Marini found his rhythm and delivered his best race of the season.

Looking Ahead to Indonesia

Both riders are optimistic as they prepare for the Indonesian Grand Prix starting on September 27 in Lombok, Indonesia. Joan Mir expressed his satisfaction with his performance and thanked his team for their hard work. Luca Marini also praised the team’s efforts and the improvements made to the bike, expressing optimism for the upcoming races.

Quotes from the Riders

Joan Mir said, “A really good race, the first time I could really push and really ride and enjoy being on the bike. I made a good start but then Raul was quite optimistic into the opening corners, so I went wide and dropped down to last. Then I got my head down and started to overtake, especially in the second half of the race I was really pleased with my performance. Not just the overtaking, but also the lap times which were the same as those guys in the top ten. 11th is a good result from where we are coming from and it’s really good to see improvements over the weekend. I have to also say thank you to my team for their work this weekend, my first in Misano, they did a good job to improve the feeling overnight. It’s encouraging and gives us all a boost as we head to Asia.”

Luca Marini said, “I am really happy with this weekend. I fully enjoyed it and there are a lot of positives to take away from it. We have found a good package with the upgrades the Japanese have made; all of the engineers have been making a good effort and now we are starting to see it in the results. The first three laps with the rear are quite complicated still, we need to work on this because even starting in 15th, we are missing something in the first laps and it stops us fighting with the others. The new aero has helped a lot, but we have also improved a lot of other small areas in the last few outings. We can head to Indonesia with optimism to continue in this way. Thank you to everyone in the team who has been working hard and staying focused all year.”