Honda riders were left to lament what they described as a “super bad” Indonesian Grand Prix practice, with factory rider Luca Marini even going slower than 2025.
The Japanese manufacturer struggled for performance on the opening day of action in Mandalika, with Marini finishing 1.3s down in 14th on the best of the four RC213Vs. LCR’s Johann Zarco ended up even further behind in 18th, while team-mate Diogo Moreira could only manage 19th after crashing twice during the day.
The lack of pace came as a surprise for the riders, particularly Marini, who equalled his season-best finish of fifth at Mandalika last year. In fact, the 1m30.037s flyer he set this afternoon was three tenths down on his best lap from the equivalent session of 2025, a 1m29.730s.
Speaking unprompted during his media debrief, Marini said he had no explanation as to why Honda has slipped backwards compared to last year, when the overall pace improved by five tenths and Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez set a new circuit record in practice.
“I’m really disappointed about today. I don’t understand why, but our level is so low today compared to last year,” he said.
“All day I’m struggling so much with front and rear grip. Let’s see if tomorrow we can invent something, but it looks like -it’s not only me, but also Diogo and Zarco now.
“I don’t understand what’s happening, but compared to last year, I just feel less comfortable on the bike, and there is less turning. The front is never following my directions and there is always very low rear grip.
“The track doesn’t look so weird because at the end Raul did a lap record. So just congratulations to the other manufacturers that they improved so much from last year to this year.
*I was three tenths worse [than last year]. Maybe the lap when they took the yellow flag on the last corner could be one tenth faster, but still not enough to go inside of the top ten. Last year, I finished fourth in the practice, so everything was much easier.”
Luca Marini, Honda HRC
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
LCR rookie Moreira – who has often been the fastest Honda rider on a single lap this year – explained that he struggled to make the soft tyre work in qualifying simulations.
The Brazilian added that a lack of feedback from the front tyre left him wondering whether he would even be able to finish his flying lap without crashing.
“In general, we are super bad here,” he admitted. “Last year, we were working well in Mandalika. This year, I don’t know what happened. We are struggling a lot to make this time attack.
“The pace with the medium on the rear is not so bad for me, but with the soft, we cannot do the time attack.
“For me, the biggest problem is on the front. I don’t have feedback with the front tyre. So I don’t know if I will finish the lap or not.
“This morning I crashed at Turn 1, and in the afternoon, I was behind Alex [Marquez] to make the time attack.
“If I finished that lap maybe we would have gone to Q2 because it was very good sectors 1 and 2. But like I said before, I don’t know if I will finish the lap or not.”
Zarco added that Honda started the weekend with a poor baseline, and has to make a step overnight to catch up to the competition.
“Tougher day than what I expected,” he said. “It was very strange to have no possibility to go fast, and the way we were sliding was really not good. It took so much time to do improvements.
“Step by step, we got a better set-up on the bike. But clearly the basic set-up we started this weekend was too far from what we needed.
“So, luckily we got a few positive steps during the practice this afternoon.
“I hope tomorrow we will go in a good direction to be competitive. I’m not waiting but I hope I will have this step tomorrow because I like the track.”
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