Luca Marini enjoyed his best weekend as a Honda rider to-date at the MotoGP German Grand Prix, scoring his first points of the season.

In the Sprint, Marini had been the top-placed Honda, while in the Grand Prix he finished 15th, after penalties were applied to several riders for breaching tyre pressure rules, and as the second-best Honda rider, a few hundredths behind Takaaki Nakagami.

“I am happy with what we have done in the first half of the year overall, this is the most important thing," Marini said after the Sachsenring race. "Of course, I didn’t expect to struggle so much but we are starting to turn things around now. Our effort from the opening races is starting to pay off and now we have to see what’s going to come after the summer break.

"The gap to first today is good, the track plays a part, but we are making improvements. Everyone in Honda is working together in the same direction, let’s keep it up after a short break.”

For Marini's teammate, Joan Mir, it was another tough weekend, and one in which he felt he was "unable to unlock my full potential."

“We have to use this weekend to understand what happened and how to avoid it in the future," Mir said. "Again, I was unable to unlock my full potential and I was struggling more than the other Honda riders. A long race, a tough race and one to learn a lot from.

"The team and I have already been looking through the data and we have some ideas on what to change in the future. We don’t stop working, we don’t stop trying and aim to come back in Silverstone stronger.”