British GP brings racing action back to Honda HRC Castrol
Silverstone CircuitThe MotoGP Summer Break comes to a close at the ominous Silverstone Circuit, 5.9 kilometres ready to reunite Luca Marini and Joan Mir with their Honda RC213V machines.
Three weeks of rest, recovery and hard work have come to an end as the Honda HRC Castrol team arrive at one of the fastest circuits on the MotoGP World Championship calendar. With 75 years of motorcycle racing history, Silverstone is amongst the most famous racetracks in the world and has produced some of MotoGP’s most memorable battles. Now Luca Marini and Joan Mir look to restart their 2026 campaigns on this hallowed ground.
Clockwork-like consistency has seen Luca Marini steadily build himself to lead the Honda charge in the World Championship standings. Scoring points every single weekend has the Italian tenth overall with 79 points – 31 clear of Diogo Moreira, the second highest placed Honda. The best defence for Marini is a good offence, the Italian ready to resume his pursuit of the higher positions in Qualifying, the Sprint and the Grand Prix. Silverstone has seen Marini miss points on just a single occasion in the premier class, his best result a seventh place in 2023.
Even a three-week break could not damp Joan Mir’s champion spirit and his quest to deliver the maximum possible result each and every weekend for Honda HRC Castrol. The #36 arrives in England with his usual focus and determination, looking to put recent rounds in the rear view and focus purely on the future. Silverstone has been an uncharacteristically complicated circuit for the 2020 MotoGP World Champion, his tenth place on the Honda RC213V there in 2025 one of just two top-tens he has achieved since joining the premier class in 2019.
The weekend will see a revised running order, Free Practice 1 starting at 11:45 Local Time on Friday, August 07 and the 20-lap British Grand Prix officially ending the summer drought at 13:00 Local Time, Sunday, August 08 just before the Moto3 race.
“I’m ready to get back on track and see the team again. These past few weeks have been very important for the physical and mental side, a refresh to head into the second half of the season hunting our maximum. A circuit like Silverstone throws everything at you as a rider, so it’s a good place to get back into racing mode. Qualifying again will be the first critical point of the weekend, and I hope we can accomplish Q2. We need to keep taking good points to protect our position in the top ten in the standings and stay as the fastest Honda.”
“I’m ready to get back on track and see the team again. These past few weeks have been very important for the physical and mental side, a refresh to head into the second half of the season hunting our maximum. A circuit like Silverstone throws everything at you as a rider, so it’s a good place to get back into racing mode. Qualifying again will be the first critical point of the weekend, and I hope we can accomplish Q2. We need to keep taking good points to protect our position in the top ten in the standings and stay as the fastest Honda.”
“This time away from the circuit has been very beneficial after a mixed start to the year. My focus in this second part of the year is to show my speed like we did in Barcelona and Brno, give my all to take the maximum from each weekend. Silverstone always throws up some interesting situations, so we need to put ourselves in the position to take profit from that. The weather is looking really nice which makes the weekend a lot more enjoyable, especially after the break!”
“This time away from the circuit has been very beneficial after a mixed start to the year. My focus in this second part of the year is to show my speed like we did in Barcelona and Brno, give my all to take the maximum from each weekend. Silverstone always throws up some interesting situations, so we need to put ourselves in the position to take profit from that. The weather is looking really nice which makes the weekend a lot more enjoyable, especially after the break!”