Mir shows his bravery to grab Q2 spot as weather looms
Chang International CircuitA return to the familiar rhythm of a Grand Prix as the 2026 season began in earnest, Joan Mir proved his mettle to grab a spot in the top ten as rain threatened, unfortunately sending his teammate to Q1.
The Honda HRC Castrol team had a buzz of excitement about it as the first Friday of a new season began, Joan Mir and Luca Marini itching to get out on track after two competitive winter tests. This first morning produced more positive directions for the Honda RC213V as Mir earned 12th and Marini 10th in the hyper competitive MotoGP field.
Confidence was key in the afternoon session as apocalyptic clouds loomed over the Chang International Circuit, 2020 MotoGP World Champion Joan Mir digging deep for an impressive final lap of the day. Despite the spots on rain, Mir produced a 1’29.517 for seventh overall in one of the coldest sessions to date at the Thai GP. With his place in the top 12 on the grid secured, Mir is aiming to stay with the leading group when the lights go out in the Sprint on Saturday.
Luca Marini missed the top ten by only 0.024s, the tightest of margins sending him to Q1 on Saturday morning. Working hard to strategize when the rain would finally arrive, Marini was looking comfortable in the top ten until the very last moments of the session. Saturday’s first objective for the Italian will be conquering Q1 so he can better demonstrate his strong race pace on Friday.
The very first Q1 of the season is scheduled for 10:50 Local Time ahead of the 13-lap Sprint Race at 15:00 Local Time.
“When you have critical conditions like this afternoon, your confidence with the bike makes a lot of difference. My confidence has improved a lot on the Honda in the last 12 months and thanks to this we were able to fight until the very end of the session and achieve our target. The situation was clear: it all came down to the last run. We’ve achieved our first goal of getting into Q2 and now we need to work for the Sprint and the race. I don’t know what will happen exactly with the weather, but we will be prepared for everything. It’s good to be back.”
“When you have critical conditions like this afternoon, your confidence with the bike makes a lot of difference. My confidence has improved a lot on the Honda in the last 12 months and thanks to this we were able to fight until the very end of the session and achieve our target. The situation was clear: it all came down to the last run. We’ve achieved our first goal of getting into Q2 and now we need to work for the Sprint and the race. I don’t know what will happen exactly with the weather, but we will be prepared for everything. It’s good to be back.”
“Great to be back in a race weekend, the clouds certainly added some excitement to the afternoon. I felt like I had managed it in a really good way, stopping before everyone else and starting my time attack at a different point. But we got unlucky that the rain didn’t come so we had to do a second time attack and I was not in the best position on track, stopping me from improving my lap time. It’s a pity because I think the level is much higher and tomorrow in Q1 will be tough with the riders in there. It will be critical, but complicated, to get a good grid position because our race pace is looking quite competitive.”
“Great to be back in a race weekend, the clouds certainly added some excitement to the afternoon. I felt like I had managed it in a really good way, stopping before everyone else and starting my time attack at a different point. But we got unlucky that the rain didn’t come so we had to do a second time attack and I was not in the best position on track, stopping me from improving my lap time. It’s a pity because I think the level is much higher and tomorrow in Q1 will be tough with the riders in there. It will be critical, but complicated, to get a good grid position because our race pace is looking quite competitive.”
