MOREIRA ENDURES TOUGH MANDALIKA WEEKEND WITH HONDA

Diogo Moreira left the Indonesian Grand Prix weekend with no points and little to take from a difficult first visit to Mandalika as a MotoGP rider. The Honda rookie crashed in Friday’s practice and again in Saturday’s Q1, then qualified 21st, ahead of only Honda test rider Aleix Espargaró, who was standing in for the ill Joan Mir. Moreira finished 17th in the sprint and 16th in Sunday’s Grand Prix.

“It was a very hard weekend,” the Brazilian said after the race. With his Honda uncompetitive, his priority late in the Grand Prix was simply to reach the finish safely. “In the end I was just trying to finish the race and not crash again. I just wanted to get this weekend behind me.”

Honda’s riders all struggled, but Luca Marini was the fastest of them in the race, taking 12th. Moreira said Marini had made the difference early: “He decided the race in the first laps; he was there.” He added that Marini’s pace was “not so bad” towards the end and that a change to the bike had improved it. Even so, Moreira described the weekend as extremely difficult for the team.

The next round is the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, scheduled for October 23–25. Moreira stood on the Moto2 podium there last year, but was unwilling to predict what he could achieve this time. “At the moment, I expect nothing,” he said. He likes riding at the circuit and noted that Honda had worked reasonably well there last year, adding: “We’ll see how it goes in Australia.”