The fastest lap of the MotoGP testing day at Misano was done by Luca Marini. The rider from the Mooney VR46 Racing Team led both the morning and afternoon sessions, and was one of the two who managed to break into the 1m30s range.
The Italian rider expressed satisfaction with the work carried out: ‘The test was positive. But the feeling with the bike was also good during the GP. It’s just that when you can ride alone is easier. We didn’t test anything big. We tried something about the geometry of the bike, suspension, different dampings. We understood something – there was something positive for sure. My crew chief and the Ducati engineers studied the last races and they tried to give me a different setting to try here and it was positive’.
Despite feeling that progress was made, Marini pointed out that the conditions are very unique in a test like this: ‘When I came back to my bike of the GP I was not able to make lap times as good as before. So, it looks like we’ve found something good, but we need to understand if it is good also on a track where there is no grip. Because the Monday test is a completely different situation that will never happen during a standard GP. So, you you are gonna try something in an unbeliavable condition. It’s so fun… I enjoy a lot riding in this condition because it looks like the limit… you cannot crash in this condition, you just push! So, we’ll see now’.
Marini also said: ‘We have a lot of data to analyze to understand which compromise is better. We tried very different settings during the day and more or less the lap time was always positive. We’ll see in India if we’ve found something good’.