Luca Marini was left feeling unfulfilled by his Sp🍰rint performance at the Solidarity Barcelona MotoGP, which he finished in 15th.

Marini’s♔ pace, he said, was acceptable, but he lost too much time at the start when he was unable to take advantage of the grip offered by🌟 a fresh, soft-compound rear tyre.

“I𝔍 expected a little bit m༺ore, sincerely,” Marini said.

“At the beginning I was not♒ so fast, I couldn’t use the extra grip of the rear tyre to make the lap time at the beginning so I lost a lot of time in the first two laps. But then my pace was okay, nothing special but I would say okay.”

Track conditions had improved compared💯 to Friday, Marini felt, but were still worse than in May’s Catalan Grand Prix. That he was able to match his la༺p times from May indicated that Marini and Honda have taken a step forward over the past six months.

“[The track was] a little bit better,” Marini said, comparing th🐻e surface to Friday after Saturday’s Sprint.

“The lap time was not fantastic even this 🦋morning in qualifying. We were able to make the same lap time as the other race here, but the other 🌼riders no.

“So, this means that our bike has improved for sure, but also that the track conditions were 🥀a little bit more difficult than in May and this wasꦍ not expected because also we had a softer rear tyre.

“But, anyw🎀ay, for everybody the same, the track c🐓onditions, we just need to work better.”

Tyre choice remains a conundrum for Sunday. Marini said it’s “impossible” that the soft-compound rear tyre can last the🍒 full race distance: “It’s impossible. Even in the Sprint race it had two big drops and it was a disaster.”

That leaves a medium-compound rear tyre and a hard-compound rear tyre, choosing b🌃etween which will depend on the temperature when the riders line up on the grid ahead of the warmꦯ-up lap for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

“At the moment it’s a little bit difficult to say for sure between the medium [compound rear tyr🧸e] and th🅰e hard [compound rear tyre],” Marini said.

“It will depend on the temperature. If it will be cold, maybe a little bit colder than today, for sure t✱he medium [compound] rear will be the best choice; if it will be a little bit more hot, the hard [compound rear tyre] will be better in my opinion.

“And 💛the hard [compound] front is a very good tyre, so the riders not using the hard [compound] front I don’t under꧒stand.”