Joan Mir confirmed Honda's current good form by finishing fifth on this first day of the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Joan mir had announced it: after a successful overseas tour, he wanted to continue in the same vein by returning to Europeand hoped that the RC213V would adapt equally well to the Portimão and Valencia circuits. With two podium finishes in four Grands Prix, the Spanish rider is indeed gaining momentum at the end of this season thanks to the recent progress made by Honda.
On Friday, he confirmed his positive momentum by immediately entering the top 10 with a seventh-place finish in FP1. The two other Honda riders, Luca Marini and Johann Zarco, were also alongside him, demonstrating the strong performance of the Japanese bike on the Portuguese circuit.
This afternoon, Mir He once again made it into the provisional top 10 before consolidating his position in the final minutes of the session, securing fifth place and finishing as the best Honda rider, just ahead of Zarco and only two-tenths of a second off the fastest time set by Álex Márquez on his Ducati. He will therefore go directly to Q2 tomorrow and avoid Q1, giving him hope for a good weekend ahead.
“We’re in a positive spiral after the overseas races and we’re all smiles today. We’ve confirmed that we can be competitive here too. I have a good feeling with the bike, especially the front end, and it makes my life on the track much easier compared to before. The bike is working well, of course, there are still things to improve, but now we really have a bike with which we can be competitive.” "He said.
“It’s really important to arrive and know that we can be there and that we’re more or less immediately in contention. Our feelings are similar to those of Sepang; we’re close to the best and we’re working in the right direction. We’ll see what we can find tonight to be just as competitive tomorrow.”
Results of the Portuguese Grand Prix Practice :
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
