{
  "id": 27412,
  "title": "Luca Marini’s theory on why Honda has been struggling in qualifying in MotoGP",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/01/luca-marinis-theory-on-why-honda-has-been-struggling-in-qualifying-in",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-01T10:59:30.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Motorsport.com",
    "slug": "motorsport-com",
    "url": "https://www.motorsport.com/motogp/news/luca-marinis-theory-on-why-honda-has-been-struggling-in-qualifying-in-motogp/10843094/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Luca Marini has proposed a theory for Honda's ongoing struggles in MotoGP qualifying sessions. He suggests that Honda's one-lap performance has been limited due to other teams making larger gains during the transition from Friday practice to qualifying. Although Honda has continued to improve its RC213V throughout the 2025 season, it has been unable to consistently match the performance of its European counterparts in qualifying, leaving them with work to do on Sundays.\n\nMarini himself has had the most difficulty making the jump from practice to Q2 out of the four Honda riders. Despite being Honda's highest points scorer so far in 2026, he has only made it to Q2 on two occasions in the opening 11 rounds of the season. The Italian attributes his lack of progress in qualifying to his competitors' ability to improve even more than he does between sessions. He believes that some manufacturers are finding more pace in the hours between Friday and Saturday morning, but Honda has seemingly reached its maximum performance by then.\n\nMarini acknowledged that the issue stems from Honda not being able to match the performance of its rivals on Friday afternoon. He expressed frustration with the fact that stronger riders and manufacturers have been able to extract more power and energy from their bikes, leaving Honda behind. His team-mate Joan Mir echoed similar sentiments, mentioning that dirty air from other riders prevented him from making the most of slipstreaming opportunities during qualifying.",
  "summary": "Luca Marini believes Honda’s one-lap struggles in MotoGP stem from other manufacturers making bigger gains between Friday practice and qualifying. While Honda has built on its breakthrough 2025 campaign to further fine-tune the RC213V, it has found it hard to consistently match the performance of its European rivals. While all four Honda riders have scored notable results in sprints and ... Keep…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}