Repsol Honda Team take positive lessons from confidence building Sprint

Portugal : A day of improvements for Joan Mir and Luca Marini in Portugal, the pair pleased to finish the Sprint with good information and direction for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Despite a muted start to the day with Qualifying, the Repsol Honda Team were ultimately left with positive feelings as setup changes for the Sprint Race saw both Mir and Marini make improvements. The pair head into Sunday looking to emulate this progress once more as they remain focused on building the project ahead of them.

Starting 20th, Mir launched well but found himself in a tangle of riders through Turn 1 and his progress briefly stalled. Keeping his focus, the #36 would produce a steady march up the order to finish as the first Honda rider home. Passing Morbidelli and Augusto Fernandez in the closing stages of the race, Mir walked away pleased with the pace he had shown compared to that of the top ten. Mir would ultimately finish in 14th.

Marini entered the 12-lap Sprint focusing purely on himself and his riding, out to collect as much information as possible. Starting well, he attached himself to the other Honda riders and worked to stay with them throughout the race. Pre-Sprint setup changes yielded some positives for the Italian who is looking for further improvements, and more laps completed, in Sunday’s feature race. Marini crossed the line in 18th place.

The 25-Lap Portuguese Grand Prix is schedule to start at 14:00 Local Time on Sunday, March 24. Both Mir and Marini will be searching for more progress on Sunday as they continue the development of the Honda RC213V.

Joan Mir (14th)

“Our race was quite good in the end after we took a pretty big risk with the setup. It’s still a new bike and we are learning things every exit. In the morning, we weren’t able to make the step forward that we needed to so we suffered in Qualifying. In the race my pace was close to that of the top ten but starting so far back limits you. We have to be happy with the step we made in the race because we were able to improve our race pace by a second.”

 

Luca Marini (18th)

 

“I went into the Sprint today with a different setting that we wanted to try across the 12 laps of the short race to understand the behaviour of the bike. I think this helped us to find something in the exit of the corners but we sacrificed a little bit in other areas. For us the Sprint is a good opportunity to try things. Now it’s time to analyse the data and also check what Joan and his team did to improve overall. We still have Warm Up tomorrow to try a few things and keep on improving.”

 

Portuegese GP – Sprint Results

 

Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 VINALES MAVERICK 12 SPA 12 Aprilia Racing Aprilia 19’49.636
2 MARQUEZ MARC 93 SPA 9 Team Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 1.039
3 MARTIN JORGE 89 SPA 7 Pramac Racing Ducati 1.122
4 BAGNAIA FRANCESCO 1 ITA 6 Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 4.155
5 MILLER JACK 43 AUS 5 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 4.329
6 BASTIANINI ENEA 23 ITA 4 Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 4.384
7 ACOSTA PEDRO 31 SPA 3 Red Bull GASGAS Tech 3 KTM 5.088
8 ESPARGARO ALEIX 41 SPA 2 Aprilia Racing Aprilia 6.161
9 QUARTARARO FABIO 20 FRA 1 Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 7.501
10 FERNANDEZ RAUL 25 SPA 0 Trackhouse Racing Aprilia 8.484
11 BEZZECCHI MARCO 72 ITA 0 Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team Ducati 9.529
12 OLIVEIRA MIGUEL 88 POR 0 Trackhouse Racing Aprilia 10.519
13 MARQUEZ ALEX 73 SPA 0 Team Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 11.458
14 MIR JOAN 36 SPA 0 Repsol Honda Team Honda 14.035
15 FERNANDEZ AUGUSTO 37 SPA 0 Red Bull GASGAS Tech 3 KTM 14.853
16 MORBIDELLI FRANCO 21 ITA 0 Pramac Racing Ducati 16.049
17 NAKAGAMI TAKAAKI 30 JPN 0 LCR Honda Honda 16.398
18 MARINI LUCA 10 ITA 0 Repsol Honda Team Honda 24.907
19 ZARCO JOHANN 5 FRA DNF LCR Honda Honda DNF
20 DI GIANNANTONIO FABIO 49 ITA DNF Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team Ducati DNF
21 BINDER BRAD 33 RSA DNF Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM DNF
22 RINS ALEX 42 SPA DNF Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha DNF

 

Rider standings

 

Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor
1 BAGNAIA FRANCESCO 1 ITA 37 Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati
2 MARTIN JORGE 89 SPA 35 Pramac Racing Ducati
3 BINDER BRAD 33 RSA 29 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM
4 MARQUEZ MARC 93 SPA 27 Team Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati
5 VINALES MAVERICK 12 SPA 19 Aprilia Racing Aprilia
6 BASTIANINI ENEA 23 ITA 19 Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati
7 ESPARGARO ALEIX

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