DIOGO MOREIRA SAYS MISANO CRASH RUINED A KEY SETUP BREAKTHROUGH

Diogo Moreira left Misano frustrated after an early crash cut short what he felt was a genuine breakthrough in his LCR Honda’s setup. The Brazilian believed he had finally found the missing piece in the bike’s behaviour through the circuit’s high-speed third sector, only for the moment to be derailed when he went down on lap three.

Moreira’s weekend had been a struggle to translate improvements into race pace. On Saturday, he finished 11th in the Sprint after qualifying 15th, and he was one of two Honda riders who missed out on Q2 at Misano—alongside Joan Mir, who was described as ill. That context made Sunday’s progress feel especially important to Moreira, because he said the key change arrived late.

According to Moreira, the main problem area on the Misano layout was the third sector, which includes sixth-gear Turn 11 and the two right-handers that follow before the first-gear Turn 14 hairpin. He explained that his team worked to make the bike more stable through those fast corners, aiming to help him keep speed without the machine becoming unsettled.

The turning point came on Sunday morning. Moreira said he discovered an improvement in that sector during Warm Up, and that it made the bike easier to ride. “It was a shame,” he said after the race, adding that “this morning we found something, finally, after all the weekend, in this sector three.” He also described how his opening laps felt promising: “I mean also this first lap on the race I felt super-good, I was able to pass riders and I felt strong.”

Moreira’s crash happened at Turn four, but he stressed that it wasn’t the result of him attacking at that moment. “Just the crash today was difficult to understand, because on that corner I was not pushing,” he said. He went down early enough that he couldn’t capitalise on the Warm Up gains, and he pointed out that the timing was particularly frustrating because the improvement had been there.

He elaborated on what the team had changed and why it mattered. Moreira said the setup and electronics work made the bike “more calm,” which in turn made it “much more easy to keep the speed on this corner,” referring to Turn 11. He added: “We found something, and this morning was much more easy to ride.” In his view, the key was that he could maintain the same rhythm across the sectors as he had done the day before, with the main progress coming in sector three.

Moreira also reflected on how the crash disrupted his race plan. He said he was preparing sector two to pass Fabio Quartararo, but the incident prevented him from executing that idea. “At the end it was strange, but anyway, we are first year in MotoGP, so we can make these mistakes,” he said.

Despite the disappointment, Moreira insisted the situation was manageable. He described the crash as small and said he was okay, while also looking ahead to the next race on the calendar. “It’s a small crash and we are okay,” he said, “so we have also next week one race more, so we need to keep like this.”

He concluded by framing Misano as a difficult weekend that finally produced a positive sign on the last day. “Anyway, it was a difficult weekend for us, and we find finally something on the last day, and will be better next year for sure.”