Joan Mir hails “busy” break between Austrian, Aragon MotoGP rounds for HRC

Deep into his second season as a factory Honda MotoGP rider, Joan Mir continues to look to the future.

Having scored a best result of ninth so far this season, that coming in the Spanish Sprint, 2020 World Champion Mir says HRC has been “busy” during the week-and-a-half since the Austrian Grand Prix, in which the best Honda rider was LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami in 14th.

“It has been busy for us after the race in Austria,” Mir said ahead of the upcoming Aragon Grand Prix. “But busy is good because everyone involved in the project has been working on the future.

“I am looking forward to returning to Aragon, the last time I raced there I was on the podium in 2021.

“The approach for the weekend will be similar to the past races where we will work on what we need to work on and see what’s possible when the lights go out on Saturday and Sunday.”

Mir’s Repsol Honda teammate Luca Marini suffered his first retirement as an HRC rider last time out in Austria. The Italian has raced three times at MotorLand in MotoGP, taking a best finish of seventh in 2022, while in Moto2 he was fourth in 2019.

For this year’s edition, Marini is focused on his performance relative to the other Honda riders, and feels that MotoGP’s one-year absence from the newly-resurfaced Aragon will not have much impact.

“I am looking forward to the next race after the disappointing end we had in Austria,” Marini said. “Going into the weekend I know that we can show our level compared to the other Honda riders and keep making improvements.

“We go back to Aragon after not being there last year, but I don’t think this will change so much.”