Early speed leaves Marini and Mir wanting more in Germany
SachsenringBoth Honda HRC Castrol riders demonstrated consistent pace on the opening day of the German GP, hunting the final tenths needed to challenge for the top ten as time attacks began.
The midway point of the 2026 MotoGP World Championship officially began at the Sachsenring with Honda HRC Castrol kick starting a busy weekend of work. Stable conditions across the Friday action allowed for plenty of data gathering around the 3.67-kilometre-long circuit. Tantalisingly tight times brought the action early to the German GP as 20 riders lapped within a second of each other to commence Friday.
For Luca Marini, Friday was a day of dedicated work after a tougher than expected start to track action. Moving into the top five in the afternoon with less than 20 minutes of the day remaining after improving his lap time by one and a half seconds, Marini would unfortunately be caught short as the field upped their pace in the closing minutes of the afternoon. 0.820s back on Marc Marquez and less than two tenths from the top ten, Marini ended the day in 14th overall and will head to Q1 once again.
Joan Mir started the day in fine form, setting times comfortably in the top five and ending Free Practice 1 in fourth, just 0.115s shy of first. His speed would continue into the early stage of the afternoon as the #36 remained a near permanent fixture around the top five until a sudden flurry of flying laps shuffled the standings with just a few minutes left. Running off track on his last run after a near fall, Mir would be unable to improve his best time from a 1’20.228 to launch a final challenge on the top ten. He finished the day in 16th.
With less than a tenth of a second splitting up to six riders, even a small step forward in lap times on Saturday could produce big rewards.
“I was expecting more after the improvement we made from this morning. The soft front to do one lap is very good, but I think for the race we need to go another direction – so good to find this information today. We need to work to improve our turning a bit, especially in sector two we need to find something. There were some things outside our control in the morning which limited us a lot, I kept calm because there was not anything we could do. The times are really tight so I think we had the ability to be in Q2 and tomorrow we can be there fighting because the condition of the circuit is improving with each lap.”
“I was expecting more after the improvement we made from this morning. The soft front to do one lap is very good, but I think for the race we need to go another direction – so good to find this information today. We need to work to improve our turning a bit, especially in sector two we need to find something. There were some things outside our control in the morning which limited us a lot, I kept calm because there was not anything we could do. The times are really tight so I think we had the ability to be in Q2 and tomorrow we can be there fighting because the condition of the circuit is improving with each lap.”
"There are a couple of points that are holding us back. We were able to be very competitive in the morning and the start of the afternoon, but then when the others made a step, we couldn't do the same. Sachsenring is a circuit that has never played to my strongest points as a rider, so I am struggling to make the difference like in other tracks. Some ideas to try tonight to improve because I think we still have some margin to improve. I saved a big high side in Turn 7 that sent me into the gravel."
"There are a couple of points that are holding us back. We were able to be very competitive in the morning and the start of the afternoon, but then when the others made a step, we couldn't do the same. Sachsenring is a circuit that has never played to my strongest points as a rider, so I am struggling to make the difference like in other tracks. Some ideas to try tonight to improve because I think we still have some margin to improve. I saved a big high side in Turn 7 that sent me into the gravel."
