Featuring heavily in the fight for the top ten, Luca Marini and Joan Mir showed Honda HRC’s progress with a scintillating Sunday in Silverstone – their true potential masked by late complications for both.
Morning rain couldn’t fault the steely focus of Luca Marini and Joan Mir as they completed their final preparations for the British GP. With the track quickly drying, it was clear the 20-lap race would be held in the dry as the clouds continued to fade. Both Honda HRC Castrol riders would make their best starts of the year as the lights went out, Marini shooting forward into the top five with Mir close behind. But a crash down the field and oil on the track would bring out the red flag early on.
Reduced to 19-laps, the restart saw another impressive launch from Joan Mir to start making up ground as he looked for open space to attack. Moving past his teammate on the next lap, Mir locked into the battle for fifth with Morbidelli and Alex Marquez. Having made such an impressive start, the #36 went into defence mode in the closing stages of the race as he worked to hold off Marini and Aldegeur. Taking 11th at the flag, Mir returns to the points and enjoys a small reward for his and the team’s efforts.
Able to again stay with the leading group after the red flag, Marini produced an incredibly consistent pace and recovered the ground to his Honda HRC Castrol teammate later in the race. Crossing the line in eighth, Marini matched his best finish as a Honda rider but would be hit with a post-race tyre penalty. This dropped him from eighth to 15th, continuing his point scoring run. His result moved teammate Joan Mir to 10th.
The march of progress and MotoGP never stops, round eight taking place in just under two weeks at MotorLand Aragon. This is the final solo stop on the calendar before seven back-to-back weekends round out the year.
Joan Mir
10th
“A mixed day today. I was really strong in both the starts to the race and able to be competitive straight away, fighting with the other riders. But coming from the back like that, I paid for it at the end of the race and didn’t have the rear to stay ahead or defend my position. The last five laps were mostly about surviving. That’s the story of today, we deserved more of a reward after the performance we put together, but we were at least able to score some points and walk away with good information. Still some things to figure out, but we keep on going.”
Luca Marini
15th
“I think I honestly could have done much better today. The first start, before the red flag, was unbelievable and I was right there with the top five but I changed the tyre when we went back to the garage and the feeling changed even though the rear spec was the same. I lost a lot of positions on the first lap but I made up a lot of ground after that. After the race we received a penalty for the pressure of the rear. As I said, the behaviour of the rear was different – it wasn’t a mistake of the team or of Michelin, it just happened. I accept the penalty because it’s the rule, it’s a shame to end a weekend like this.”
