Luca Marini admitted that he is fortunate to have avoided serious consequences after flying debris from Fabio Quartararo’s Yamaha struck him in the chest at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Qualifying a distant 15th on the grid, Marini spent much of Sunday’s race outside points-scoring position, even as Johann Zarco showed Honda had the pace to finish inside the top 10.
As Quartararo dropped down the order on an uncompetitive Yamaha after starting ninth, Marini sensed an opportunity to break inside the top 15, passing the 2021 champion on lap 21.
However, their brief battle wasn’t without drama, with the Italian left in pain after taking a sizeable hit from a wing that had become detached from Quartararo’s bike.
“I think it was Quartararo's wing, because I saw a blue piece that hit me in the braking of Turn 4,” Marini recalled.
“I don't know if he had contact with somebody in the straight between 3 and 4. I saw the wing, I tried to avoid it, but it arrived here [in the chest].
“I had a lot of pain, a little bit for those two corners. Then, I tried to forget about this and focus again on my riding.”
Asked whether he was feeling well at the end of the race, he added: “Yeah, [I was] just a little bit worried at the beginning.
“I have a little bit of pain here in the chest, but fortunately everything went well, but it could be much worse.”
In what was one of his toughest races of the year, Marini crossed the finish line in 14th place after passing the LCR Honda of rookie Diogo Moreira in the closing stages.
His deficit to the top Honda of Zarco stood at six seconds, while more alarmingly he was also beaten by the marque’s test rider Takaaki Nakagami, who finished a second up the road in 13th while substituting for Joan Mir.
The 29-year-old explained that the stiffer rear tyre Michelin brought at Spielberg affected him more than some other riders on the grid.
"I struggled a lot with this rear tyre,” he said. “I had a lot of problems with the temperature in the rear and I had a lot of spin.
“I cannot manage more than this, because I'm not opening the throttle, I'm putting the bike full straight, I'm not using the device and trying to keep the temperature as low as possible.
“But even like this, I have 20 degrees more than the other Honda riders, so I really don't understand. Of course, maybe it's because I'm tall, and I weigh more than the others, but f**k, it was a really tough Saturday and Sunday. I didn't expect so much.”
