Nakagami fills in for injured Marini at Honda for Italian MotoGP

Takaaki Nakagami will replace the injured Luca Marini at MotoGP's Italian Grand Prix in Mugello next week for the factory Honda squad.

Marini remains sidelined due to the serious injuries he suffered at the end of May during a test for the Suzuka 8 Hours in Japan.

After racing with only one rider in Aragon - taking advantage of a regulation clause that allowed Honda not to find a replacement - the Japanese team is now required to field a substitute for Marini.

Although his name did not appear on the official entry list for the Italian GP, Autosport has learned that Japanese rider Nakagami will be Marini’s substitute, racing from the official garage alongside team-mate Joan Mir.

Nakagami retired at the end of last season as a full-time rider to begin a new chapter in his career as a test rider for HRC.

He has never raced with the official Honda MotoGP team before, having always competed with the satellite LCR Honda team.

Takaki Nakagami, HRC

Photo by: Marc Fleury

However, the 33-year-old from Chiba has already made one race start this season by entering the French GP as a wildcard with the Honda test team, finishing an impressive sixth by perfectly managing his tyre choice and timing his bike swap during a flag-to-flag race that featured two starts.

This season, with the arrival of new technical director Romano Albesiano from Aprilia, Honda has three test riders: Nakagami, Aleix Espargaro, and German rider Stefan Bradl, who currently focuses solely on testing.

Espargaro entered as a wildcard in the Spanish and British GPs, finishing 17th in Spain and failing to finish in Britain, but after that round the Spaniard admitted he no longer felt a strong desire to race.

However, if Marini’s absence continues, Honda might consider calling on the three-time MotoGP race winner to fill in for the Italian.