Despite promising moments throughout the weekend, the Repsol Honda Team leaves the first of two races at Misano unrewarded despite the efforts of Alex Marquez and Stefan Bradl.
Alex Marquez put a difficult Saturday behind him and showed his maturity as he approached Sunday with an open mind. A strong performance in the morning warm-up, which finished ninth and only 0.321 off Takaaki Nakagami’s fastest time, showed that his race pace was promising. A steady start as the lights go out resulted in Alex making up a handful of places early. The MotoGP rookie spent much of the race getting past Petrucci. Alex, who matched the speed of the leaders in the closing stages, had to be content with 17th – his qualifying position meant that at the end of the race he could no longer continue at his speed.
Stefan Bradl pressed hard through clenched teeth as the German driver struggled through problems with his right elbow. With a strong start to the race, his Honda RC213V shot forward and made up a number of positions. But with the problem in the elbow, he was unable to match the pace he had shown over the weekend and went into damage control mode to bring the bike home in 18th.
Takaaki Nakagami took the top Honda award in ninth place, his sixth top ten result of the 2020 season.
There is little time to rest as Alex Marquez will be back on track on Tuesday September 15, before the Gran Premio dell’Emilia Romagna and Riviera di Rimini start on Friday September 18 The Repsol Honda Team is determined to capitalize on what they learned and come back stronger next week.