Factory Honda MotoGP rider Luca Marini has been seriously injured while testing for this year’s Suzuka 8 Hour, suffering significant injuries at the Japanese circuit following a crash on Wednesday. “Having completed a successful first day, the Italian began the second day of his programme but crashed heavily,” said Honda in an official statement. “Suffering from a dislocated left hip, damage to the ligaments in his left knee, fractures in the sternum and left collarbone, and a right-sided pneumothorax, Marini was transferred to local hospital and stabilised. “Marini will remain under observation in Japan until he is deemed fit to travel.” No further information has been released at this time by the team, but the factor of a pneumothorax – a punctured lung, one of the injuries also suffered by reigning world champion Jorge Martin at the Qatar GP last month – likely complicates his recovery by restricting Marini’s ability to fly home immediately. Marini had traveled straight from last weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone to Suzuka alongside LCR Honda racer Johann Zarco, who won last year’s race for the factory HRC team alongside Takumi Takahashi and Teppei Nagoe, and who will return to action again this year. Marini […]
MotoGP’s iconic Repsol Honda partnership will cease at the end of the 2024 season. Spanish petroleum company Repsol has served as the title sponsor of the works Honda premier-class team since 1995, with the likes of Mick Doohan (pictured below), Alex Criville, Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden, Casey Stoner and Marc Marquez all winning titles in its colours. There had been persistent rumours in recent years, however, that Honda – whose MotoGP competitiveness has declined badly since it last won the title with Marquez in 2019 – and Repsol may be headed for a split. It hadn’t materialised until now, but Marquez’s departure for 2024 seemingly left the partnership on particularly shaky ground – as evidenced by Repsol branding being relegated to just part of the motif on Honda’s works livery for 2024, rather than providing the dominant colours. “Repsol is grateful for HRC’s [Honda Racing Corporation] commitment and dedication during all these years in which we have worked together,” a Repsol statement read. “The multi-energy company will continue to be linked to motor racing to continue developing products and services of the highest quality.” The news arrived – surely coincidentally – on a day in which Repsol-branded Hondas were already […]
