MotorLand Aragón
Bruising Sprint for recovering Mir and Marini
A day of learnings for the Honda HRC Castrol squad, Joan Mir and Luca Marini encountering a number of hurdles throughout the day which limited their potential.
The temperature and pressure of the Grand Prix of Aragon continuing to build, the Honda HRC Castrol team began the day with justified optimism after a busy evening of analysis. 11th and 14th respectively in Free Practice 2, Luca Marini and Joan Mir were content with the work Honda HRC’s engineers and their mechanics had discovered and improved overnight.
Making a significant improvement to his fastest lap time from Friday, Joan Mir was in the mix for the transfer spots in Q1 but a tricky third sector hid the final tenths he needed to crack the top 12. Mir’s day would be further complicated by contact at Turn 3 on the first lap, the #36 getting sent off the circuit and dropping to the very back of the field. Putting his head down, Mir was able to work his way back up to 16th and complete the Sprint to collect important information for Sunday’s full-length Grand Prix.
Despite only being three tenths from the top two in Q1, Luca Marini started the Sprint in 18th on the grid as just over half a second split 10 of the 12 riders in Q1. Looking to gain ground early, the Italian started quickly but suffered a heavy fall between turns five and six on the opening lap. Marini reported some discomfort after the fall and will focus on rest and recovery to be as prepared as possible for the 23-lap Aragon Grand Prix on Sunday.
Joan Mir 36 Honda HRC Castrol
“The positive is that we finished the race today, after the contact at Turn 3 with Bastianini I wasn’t sure that would be possible, but I was able to pick the bike up and save it after going wide. After that any good result was not possible so I focused on making the overtakes and I could and collecting data, honestly with clear air in front of me I was able to stay in the mid 1’57s which was quite acceptable. I was able to improve my confidence a lot on the bike compared to Friday and we need to keep building on that – fully focused on Sunday now.”
Luca Marini 10 Honda HRC Castrol
“Really unfortunate today overall, not what we were expecting. The morning was positive and I was happy with the feeling from the bike thanks to the work of the team. Q1 was like it always is, very very close and just a tenth can make a big difference – finally we need to do the work on Friday to avoid this. Then in the Sprint, I crashed by myself between turn five and six, it was quite a hard fall, and I have quite some pain at the moment but no major issues. We will rest now and see what’s possible on Sunday.”
