TT Circuit Assen
Marini fights for top Honda honours in Assen Sprint
A day of contrasts in the Netherlands as Joan Mir led Honda HRC in qualifying thanks to a fantastic lap but falls early in the Sprint while Luca Marini diligently takes data with another race finish.
Saturday brought new challenges for the Honda HRC Castrol team as the 4.5-kilometre-long TT Circuit Assen continued to evolve and change with the intense weather conditions. A busy night of work in the garage and engineers’ truck gave the Honda RC213V a boost and allowed Marini and Mir to close the gap to those ahead of them.
Struggling to make the most of the soft rear in Q1, Luca Marini was only able to earn 17th on the grid but a strong start, even without the front hole shot device, saw him gain three places almost immediately as he tagged onto the back of a big group fighting for the top ten. The majority of the race would be spent hunting down Moreira on the LCR Honda, the experienced Italian aiming to walk away as the top Honda rider after an early fall from his teammate. 1.1 seconds back on the Brazilian, Marini earned 12th place in the Sprint and collected important data for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Intense overnight work paid off for Joan Mir as the 2020 World Champion rocketed through Q1, setting a time more than half a second quicker than his Friday best almost immediately. With a top 12 spot guaranteed, the #36 left it late to push with a quick lap and would capture tenth on the grid with a best lap of 1’31.504 in Q2. Full of confidence, he made an aggressive start, but Mir’s Sprint would last just four corners as he fell on lap one, unharmed but collecting no additional data for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Sunday’s 26-lap Dutch Grand Prix is scheduled to start at 14:00 Local Time, with a tightly fought grid and several big names in the middle of the pack it is looking like a classic race at MotoGP’s most historic track. Predicted overnight storms could throw a spanner into the works.
Luca Marini 10 Honda HRC Castrol
“The heat was not so bad, a bit worse when you're following other riders for a whole Sprint - still not as intense as when we are in places like Indonesia. It was a race quite like what we were expecting as we are struggling a little bit everywhere this weekend. We are working hard to try and improve but we are mostly in a defensive mode and more than the top ten tomorrow will be very good. The first lap tomorrow will be very important because then it becomes complicated to overtake.”
Joan Mir 36 Honda HRC Castrol
“I made a good start, even without the front device, for sure we can improve it further and I think now the rider can make more of a difference. Then I tried to go for a wider line to start overtaking, but this move kept me wide in that tight opening section and I think it was a bit dirty so I slipped off. A real shame because I think we could have had a good battle at the very least. I wasn’t expecting this crash but it’s something that can happen, the good thing is that we walk away without any damage to myself.”
