Onward and upward, Honda HRC Castrol continue progress with fruitful Friday in Misano
Misano World Circuit Marco SimoncelliForward momentum continues to build to an unstoppable pace, Joan Mir and Luca Marini once again graduating from Friday inside the top ten as the might of Honda HRC’s engineers continues to show.
Double Friday delight for Honda HRC Castrol on the Adriatic Coast as further upgrades to the Honda RC213V helped both Joan Mir and Luca Marini to show their potential and bring the fight back to the front group. Despite a crash at the end of the afternoon session, it was Joan Mir who led the Honda charge with a best time of 1’30.819. Sixth overall, the lap is a second faster than Zarco’s best time from the same session 12 months ago. Boosted by several upgrades, including a new exhaust and several aerodynamic pieces, Mir showed his World Champion pedigree and has set himself clear targets for Saturday and Sunday.
The pressure was on for Luca Marini in front of his home crowd, the Italian sitting comfortably inside the top five for the majority of both sessions as he worked to test the upgrades prepared by Honda HRC’s engineers. With the clock ticking down in the final moments of the afternoon session, Marini was outside the top ten but dug deep to get his Honda HRC Castrol RC213V machine around the Misano circuit in a time of 1’30.848 – 0.029s behind his teammate. MotoGP Hall of Famer Casey Stoner was also on hand to offer input to the #10.
Objective one conquered in fine style, Saturday will be about securing the strongest possible grid spot to help break away with the leading group in the Sprint and the Grand Prix. Step by step, Honda HRC continue to close the gap to the front at an ever-quickening pace.
We’ve had a really positive day despite the crash. I was improving the lap time with the second tyre, but even like this we were able to make it. A little bit sore after the crash, I have quite some pain in the neck so I need to do some work with the physio tonight – we can manage it. There is still some margin to make another step tomorrow, I am aiming for the front two rows. We have even more new things for this race and straight away we were able to go faster which is a really good improvement. This is a really satisfying Friday, it’s not easy to stay in the top six when everyone is putting a lot of new tyres at the end of the day. Thanks to all of Honda HRC for their work, they keep going and keep bringing new things for us.
We’ve had a really positive day despite the crash. I was improving the lap time with the second tyre, but even like this we were able to make it. A little bit sore after the crash, I have quite some pain in the neck so I need to do some work with the physio tonight – we can manage it. There is still some margin to make another step tomorrow, I am aiming for the front two rows. We have even more new things for this race and straight away we were able to go faster which is a really good improvement. This is a really satisfying Friday, it’s not easy to stay in the top six when everyone is putting a lot of new tyres at the end of the day. Thanks to all of Honda HRC for their work, they keep going and keep bringing new things for us.
This weekend, the bike has been working very well and the updates we have brought all made us faster straight out of the ‘box’. I am enjoying riding, but like always we still have some things to improve to get even closer to the front. Qualifying will be tricky, but I think that our pace is getting better with every exit. Getting straight to Q2 helps, but we still need to try and find something overnight to get more from the soft rear. We have to take a moment and look at our situation, we have been making good progress in the last few races, and I think that we have done well over the last 12 months. More things to come as our objective keeps growing.
This weekend, the bike has been working very well and the updates we have brought all made us faster straight out of the ‘box’. I am enjoying riding, but like always we still have some things to improve to get even closer to the front. Qualifying will be tricky, but I think that our pace is getting better with every exit. Getting straight to Q2 helps, but we still need to try and find something overnight to get more from the soft rear. We have to take a moment and look at our situation, we have been making good progress in the last few races, and I think that we have done well over the last 12 months. More things to come as our objective keeps growing.
