Pole-sitter Luca Marini finished the Sprint race in second position yesterday, ending today’s long race early, through no fault of his own, but because he was hit by Brad Binder.
In a debrief, the Italian rider of the Mooney VR46 explained that there was nothing he could do to avoid the collision, showing himself satisfied with the weekend and not being resentful of Brad Binder:
– No, it was impossible (to dodge), I just saw a flash and fart, that was it. But Brad went to my garage, and I explain everything to me, so now I’m less upset because he said that when he went to the kerb he had a moment with the bike and sometimes it happens that the front pads open. This has happened to me this weekend too and I know that feeling. It was just bad luck in my case. It’s something I can’t control, but I’m more disappointed with my start because my start wasn’t that good, but then when Jorge passed me on the straight, I had to close the throttle because I was almost crashing because of my front tyre and I lost two positions there that for this case, caused me not to be in the correct position for my run. And anyway, it was a good weekend for me, the speed was good, and we’ll see how my physical condition is at Phillip Island, if it’s a bit better. I hope so.
Marini was also asked about the weekend as a whole and if he expected to achieve the results, he achieved in Mandalika, showing that he was somewhat surprised with the way things went, with the certainty that he could fight for the podium without today’s bad luck:
– The race was a bit strange (Sprint), as was the podium. Nobody expected the podium like that. We knew that Maverick could be strong and Jorge the strongest today but seeing the lap times and the pace that everyone had, I could have fought for the podium easily because today was also cold, with the wind. And especially with the rear medium the bike is easier to ride in the physical department, because with less grip the bike wobbles much less, so the effort you must apply to the handlebar is much less…