Pecco Bagnaia champion, Luca Marini tips his hat

A round of applause, from one Ducati rider to another.

Luca Marini takes his hat off to Pecco Bagnaia on Sunday when the Piedmontese rider was crowned MotoGP World Champion. “I want to thank Ducati and the Team for this year and a bravo to Pecco for this great victory in the World Championship. Now we work towards 2023 to stay consistently in the Top 3,” said the Mooney VR46 Racing Team rider at the concluded Valencia Grand Prix.

And Marini admitted that his Sunday, which ended in sixth place, was certainly not a walk in the park. “A very very difficult race: right from the start I started to have problems with the temperatures. The bike was going into protection and taking away power,” he explained.

“A very strange thing, we are analyzing the data to understand, because it is a type of problem we have never had, not even in Thailand or Malaysia. That said, I’m happy with the performance. I didn’t give up and I managed the tire behind well. I hit another place and finished a solid race,” Marini added.