'Different issues' leaves Marini limited on day-one; 'was a very stressful day'
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Problems with both his Ducati GP22 bikes left Luca Marini frustrated on day-one of the official Sepang MotoGP test. The second-year MotoGP rider missed nearly five hours of total track action after suffering early issues to both bikes.While Marini eventually managed to get out on track and complete 52 laps, the Mooney VR46 Ducati rider did so with just one of his bikes available.Marini said: “Was a tough day. We had different issues with both bikes and at the beginning of the day it was impossible to ride. So I stayed four or five hours in my chair to try and understand the problems and to try and fix it as soon as possible. Related Michelin announced as title sponsor for 2022 Argentina Moto Valentino Rossi withdraws from Gulf 12 Hours sportscar race”But it takes some hours sometimes. It was a very stressful day especially for the mental side; I train a lot. I tried to keep my focus for hours and to remain calm, to analyse everything with my engineers. “Fortunately at the end with one bike we fixed the problems and I could do two hours just to understand the track because it’s the first time with the MotoGP here. Related VR46 Mooney deal includes Valentino Rossi’s car races MotoGP podcast: 2021 season review – Ducati”I needed to ride a little bit and even though we rushed I managed to do some laps to better understand the track. I think that the real test will start tomorrow and it will be important to have both bikes ready with no issues. “For sure the first day of testing with the new bike these things can happen but we didn’t expect to have so many problems. But anyway, I think tomorrow we can do a good job.”The loss of track time also resulted in Marini spending most of his riding getting familiar with the Sepang circuit on MotoGP machinery, as opposed to testing Ducati’s new engine, electronics, fairing and exhaust. “4When asked about the differences between his previous bike and the new GP22, Marini added “No, it’s too early now. I did very few laps, very few quality laps. “It was just trying to fix everything and also when I was able to ride in a normal way on the bike, we needed to prepare the electronics well. Also with the set-up we did some adjustment, all the small things that you do when you start on a new track. “So today it was impossible to understand the differences between the bikes. I hope that tomorrow can be a normal day and that I will be able to understand.””5
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