BIKE (UK)

RACING

Valentino’s maternal half-brother Luca Marini is making moves in Moto2.

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Iand generation countries not the Riders and Take F have Grand The superiorit­y impetus go national backed YOU’VE Academy unnoticed a complete noticed look competitio­ns like Prix of the for championsh­ips winners BEEN at Japan fed motorcycle new the the that that by dominance by founding paying points and wave Valentino has the a as feeding combinatio­n Italy the generated, coming of tables. racing attention, Italian power produced of of waned. Rossi into the Spain, force At is of regional VR46 talent. Italian. trained and the of This you’ll it’s in a grassroots time was did championsh­ip and were first, fifth and 11th in of Moto2. became graduate Pecco writing, Bagnaia, This the to VR46 the first season the Motogp VR46 riders Moto2 Franco rider led grid. leader, the Morbidelli to Moto3 is Lorenzo and off We it to knew looked Motogp Baldassarr­i Pecco for next a and while were season. his as quick, friend if the two then the KTMS would Lorenzo got fight going. had it a out crash Early for the or on, two title, both and men said they were expected surprised to that be Pecco’s contenders team this mate year on but the Sky Racing Team VR46 team Luca Marini wasn’t. Marini also happens to be the maternal half-brother of Valentino Rossi. This is his first year with big brother’s team after two years with Forward Racing. For the first half of the year it looked as if he was going to remain just an occasional points scorer in Moto2, then he ripped to three podium results in a row in the run up to Silverston­e, plus a pole position and a fastest lap. It was like someone had thrown a switch and Italy instantly had another potential winner. As usual, there were a bunch of small reasons rather although longest than is the his one shoulder one big that one Luca dislocatio­n for the talks turnround, about at Jerez for early in the season. Original treatment was not helpful and full recovery took time. He will probably have surgery at the end of the year now that doctors say he has stopped growing. He was only 21 in August. The other reason has to be his team, well backed by Sky Italia as part of their policy of supporting young Italian talent in sport, music, and the arts (this being Italy, that includes cookery). Like his fellow-countrymen, Luca thought nd he’d be quicker, faster. ‘I expected it earlier. You learn a lot in Moto2, there are lots of small things to put together but I felt fast for the start of the year.’ It should also be remembered that he skipped Moto3 due to his height and went straight into the maelstrom that is Moto2 after one wild-card ride in the class. He expects nothing to change when the class changes to Triumph power next season. It occurred to me Luca must get ticked off with questions about his brother, so when I talked to him at Silverston­e I decide to save that for last. I also made the mistake of assuming he was destined to be a motorcycle racer. Wrong. He only really committed to the sport at around 14 years old when he moved from the world of pocketbike and Minigp into the Italian Moto3 championsh­ip. He also played football and tennis to a good level and could have gone on to university to study science. ‘Maybe astrophysi­cs,’ he says then flashes a grin and adds, ‘or Ufology.’ Time to ask the brother question. Is having Valentino as your brother a major advantage or a constant weight on your shoulders? ‘More advantages of course. I can learn a lot from being close to him, he teaches a lot and not just about racing.’ A very honest reply conditione­d, one suspects, by the 18-year age gap between the two of them. ‘And from his mistakes. He made a lot of mistakes.’ Now that sounds more like a little brother.

 ??  ?? It’s a family a air, it’s a family a air…
It’s a family a air, it’s a family a air…

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